To bring cheer to the NICU
Gifts & treats for NICU families
Volunteer, Sew, Participate, or Donate
Father's Day 2020
We are doing our inaugural Father's Day Bags in 2020. They will be full of men's luxe toiltetries, snacks, preemie gifts and a Dad book.Mother's Day 2020
2020 NICU Cheer Mother's Day Gift-bags. Sadly this delivery was cancelled due to Covid-19.
You can help us by purchasing gifts to go into the bags for them (& hampers full of treats fir staff too) now at:
www.thankfulregistry.com/nicucheer
or click the link BELOW
Please share the registry link far + wide!
TᕼE ᑎIᑕᑌ ᑕᕼEEᖇ ᖇEGISTᖇY IS ᑌᑭᗪᗩTEᗪ ᗯITᕼ Oᑌᖇ ᑕᕼᖇISTᗰᗩS ITEᗰS!!!
It’s that time of year again folks. If you’d like to help us cheer up parents of the 250 or so premature/sick babies who will spend Christmas Day in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units across Melbourne in:
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The Royal Women's Hospital
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Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital

I am so proud + very excited to say that last week I’ve finalised taking on our 5th hospital The Joan Kirner Women's & Children's Hospital based in Sunshine Victoria which is the last of the NICUs in Melbourne, so now all Melbourne NICUs will receive our NICU Cheer gift deliveries on special days throughout the year.
With the 28 cots at JK added to our existing hospitals, this Christmas we will donating a total of 250 very large gift-bags full of goodies for parents of premature/sick babies in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) across all of greater Melbourne!

I am so happy about this... it was my dream to expand to all NICUs but I thought it would take me years and years and I have managed to get to all 5 within 4 years. This Christmas is going to be EPIC! Cannot wait...
NICU Cheer now includes a pair of Snuggle Hearts in each of our gift-bags for families of premature/sick babies. Each delivery we do a total of 250 bags that are distributed to Melbourne five major hospital’s with tertiary level NICUs. This means we need at thousands hearts per year as they are given to families in pairs.
The Snuggle Hearts are very simple to make even with basic sewing skills. If you'd like to sew and donate some please send an email to or click below for the 1 page template & instructions will be sent to you. ♥️
Mum wears one heart down her top to pick up her scent, & the other is placed on, under or near your baby in their NICU cot (check with your hospital for their guidelines on this). The Snuggle Hearts are then swapped back and forth so that mother & baby can always smell each other even when apart. The program has been introduced to help a mother’s milk come in when she is apart from her baby, while the scent of the mother also has a calming effect on the baby”. ♥️
Rush University, USA: “The sense of smell is one of the earliest senses to develop...After birth, the sense of smell continues to develop, and it is one of the senses that helps the infant recognise the mother,” said Lawrence. “So having the mum’s familiar scent can really help ease an infant’s stress and discomfort.”
Christie Lawrence, clinical nurse specialist and assistant professor in the Department of Women, Children and Family Nursing at RU. ♥️

On 7 March 2020 NICU Cheer Founder Maddie proudly received a Community Volunteer Award from the Federal Minister for Jaggajagga Kate Thwaites at ceremony held in Ivanhoe, Victoria, cheered on and supported by her wonderfully supportive best friends and family and 5 year old daughter.