Blankets are helping mums and tots bond
Caring ladies are knitting tiny comfort blankets for premature babies and their mums at Crosshouse.
The blankets are placed next to babies in incubators and mums get one to hold close too.
They are then swapped over so infants can inhale the smell of their mothers.
It has proved a huge hit in the neonatal unit at the hospital, where the items bring solace to new mums who cannot hold their special care babies.
Holy Trinity churchgoers have made 600 of the seven- by- seven inch squares for the unit since April.
Helen Stephen has led the needlecraft campaign to make the beautiful comforters, known as bonding squares.
The 69- year- old gran said: “We want to establish the bond between mother and child, which gets lost with separation. “The project means a lot to me. “My own daughter Clare was born premature, weighing 5lb 4oz, and I was separated from her.
“There was no contact apart from feeding. I really didn’t get to know her properly until I got home.
“It is a stressful situation for mothers. The bonding squares give comfort to the child and mother.”
Helen uses garter and moss stitch for the mini- blankets.
Fellow congregation member Mary McCorquindale, 82, said: “We are all mothers so we know how they feel. Every stitch is a stitch of love. It reminds mums they are not alone.”
The knitting women visited the Kilmarnock neonatal unit recently to see their lovingly created products in action.
Helen said: “It was a lovely visit. I saw a little baby lying on one of my bonding squares.”
Great- grandmother June Gilmour, 85, said: “The staff at the hospital are so appreciative.
“The manager Caroline Blake is such a nice lady and so committed. I never met anyone with so much enthusiasm for the job.”