We simply can't help them without you.

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Every week in a Victorian hospital, a mother is faced with not being able to take her newborn home, simply because she doesn’t have a safe way to transport her baby.

Your gift of $59 today can help ensure these families go home together. [[link removed]]

Friend, I’m sure you agree that the ideal scenario goes something like this: A heavily pregnant mum-to-be, is gently helped into the car and taken to her local hospital to give birth. The bag in the car boot is bursting with all the items they’ll need for the next few days – all the newborn essentials. Securely fastened to the back seat is a brand-new car seat – waiting for its precious cargo. Back at home, a beautiful nursery awaits, filled with everything the baby could ever want or need. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this was the case all the time?

Sadly, it's not the reality for everyone.

Frequently, women arrive at hospitals right across Victoria, in labour and without any of the things they need. No hospital bag with carefully packed items for them and their baby, no car seat or pram to transport their newborn safely. And no fully equipped nursery waiting at home.

Friend, as a valued supporter of Geelong Mums, your help truly can make a difference. If you are able to give a financial gift [[link removed]] to help support programs like our Safe Start Program – helping the most vulnerable Victorian women in crisis – we would be so grateful.

Safe Start is an emergency aid program that we provide to almost every public hospital in Victoria. Through the program, we support women who are identified as the most vulnerable and most in need. Without our help, these women do not have the essentials to ensure their newborn can be taken home safely or can sleep safely when they arrive home.

These women are the most vulnerable in our state and they are in crisis. Without the assistance of our Safe Start Program, they face the prospect of leaving hospital without their newborn child.

The Safe Start Program is simple. In essence it is a kit of essential items, able to be mobile and fit into a car boot, that will provide safe care, sleep and transport for a newborn.

There are a number of heartbreaking reasons that women might find themselves in need of our Safe Start Program. They might be living with domestic abuse, be homeless, have had a hidden pregnancy, be a refugee, be challenged with addiction issues or be struggling in social isolation.

We also get requests for babies in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) who are about to go home, and where the enormity of the situation has left the family without time or resources to prepare the essentials they need.

Will you give $59 to help ensure newborns have a “Safe Start” in life? [[link removed]]

With your support, through programs like Safe Start, we can ease some of the financial pressures of providing safe, essential items at the birth of a baby. We can help ensure a safe start for newborns and ensure that every mother feels supported and equipped to enable her child to thrive.

“The women are completely overcome with emotion when we wheel in their pram, portacot, car seat and clothes. It alleviates an enormous amount of stress. Our families leave the hospital feeling proud they have something for their children they can now call their own. We are incredibly thankful for the work that Geelong Mums does for our patients. We honestly couldn’t imagine not having the service.”

– Testimonial from a Sunshine Hospital Social Worker

I am immensely proud of our Safe Start Program and so thankful for our supporters that enable it to continue. The reality is we need $46,000 in order to continue the Safe Start Program for the next year. To do that, we need your help. Friend if you are able to give a financial gift today to help ensure the longevity of this program and its positive impact on thousands more newborns and their families I would be very grateful. [[link removed]]

Thank you,

Ruth Holdaway MBE

Chief Executive Officer

P.S. Just $59 will make a huge difference enabling women in crisis to take their newborn babies home safely. [[link removed]]

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Geelong Mums

110 Balliang Street,

Geelong South VIC Australia

Geelong Mums would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands we work on across Victoria and pay our respects to their elders, both past and present and to their children and young people, who are our future elders and caretakers of this great land.

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