200k charity runners hand funds over to maternity unit
The group of local runners who set themselves a challenge of running 200km in the month of November as a fundraiser for the new maternity bereavement unit at the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar presented the proceeds last week.
Ger Feerick said: “All 17 of us completed the challenge, we all ran at least 200km – two of us ran 250km and Paul Heavin did 300k in the month. Everyone got it done in time – a few picked up injuries along the way, but we did it anyway.”
The runners are: from Multyfarnham, Elaine O’Reilly, Aisling Boyhan, Ger Feerick, Emmet Feerick, Lee Casserly, Aaron Nolan, Gary Guilfoyle, Andrew Boyhan, Tom Donnelly, Enda Carter and Adrian Bates; Paul Heavin, from Athlone; Sean Carroll from The Downs, Karl Wallace from Longford, Conor Clarke, Martin Fitzpatrick from Mullingar, and Julie McLoughlin from Crookedwood.
The €14192.93 that the group raised will go towards the planned maternity bereavement room at Mullingar hospital, which will provide families with a comfortable space where they can spend time together, and in private at such a sad time.
Marie Corbett, Director of Midwifery, expressed thanks on behalf of her team to the group for putting in so much effort and raising so much money. She confirmed that the design for the new unit has been completed and work is due to start soon.
Background
The aim of the bereavement suite for families that suffer a pregnancy loss is to provide a quiet, private area for families to come to terms with their loss.
At present, families that experience a loss connected with maternity are accommodated in a single room in the maternity unit on an ad hoc basis – however, research shows that the sense of loss and sadness families experience at such a time is exacerbated by the joy and optimism experienced by others in the unit.
The project does not involve any building work, but the conversion of storerooms outside the maternity unit into an apartment with kitchenette, toilet and wash facilities and a double bed so that a partner can stay.
The unit is to be staffed by midwives from the maternity ward.
The hospital caters for families from Westmeath, Longford, Meath, Kildare and Roscommon, and more than 2,000 babies are born at there each year; there are between 10 and 15 stillbirths and a further cohort of pregnancy and perinatal losses. While a bereavement suite cannot alter the outcome, research has shown that it improves outcome for the bereaved family. The suite will provide a quiet area in which families could talk to staff, a less clinical place where families can be supported when meeting deceased siblings.
It will provide a suitable space for mothers who are experiencing or have experienced pregnancy loss or perinatal death and for partners and extended family.
It will be within easy access of specialised midwifery and obstetric support if necessary.