THE LITTLE MIRACLES TRUST

Information by Jadey Drury, Little Miracles Trust, New Zealand.

More than 5,000 premature babies are born each year in Aotearoa, New Zealand. That’s one baby arriving early every 90 minutes. For these pēpi and their whānau, the first days can be stressful and uncertain.

The Little Miracles Trust supports whānau with babies in neonatal care. The journey can be overwhelming, so the Trust helps make things easier, through care, comfort, and connection. We are a registered notfor-profit that currently operates across New Zealand, with teams in Auckland, Middlemore, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, & Dunedin, and we’re constantly working to expand into more regions.

How It Works

The Trust provides and coordinates support to the whānau of premature and sick full-term babies as they journey through neonatal intensive care, transition home, and beyond.

Support includes:

• Care Packs on arrival to the unit.

• Morning teas to connect whānau and experts.

• Equipment for families to use in units.

• Post-discharge playgroups and coffee mornings.

How You Can Help

Your support goes further than you think. How you can help:

• Make a donation.

• Leave a legacy.

• Organise a fundraiser.

• Sew or knit for our pēpi.

Many parents and extended whānau choose to give back to, The Little Miracles Trust to acknowledge the support they received.

The first step is to connect with us so we can keep you in the loop with what’s happening locally and across the country. Every bit helps, whether it’s big or small.

Our Three Key Objectives

1. The Trust’s main focus is supporting parents through a traumatic time. Most of the team have had babies in one of New Zealand’s six NICUs and work to ease the stress faced by families with premature or ill babies. They visit parents to assess individual needs, from access to information to practical, financial, or emotional support.

2. The second aim of the Trust is to assist the NICUs and SCBUs in practical ways, such as purchasing or contributing to the cost of equipment and funding for staff to attend neonatal educational seminars or other professional development.

3. The third aim of the Trust is to aid neonatal-related medical research.

We assist units in practical ways, such as contributing to the cost of equipment or funding for staff to attend neonatal education and professional development opportunities.

Supporting Neonatal Research

We also fund and support medical research related to neonatal care.

The Manaaki Room

The Manaaki Room, shown below, was created in Waikato NICU with the help of the Cambridge Lions for whānau needing a private space to hear and process difficult news. It offers a quiet place where families can come together for support and, when the time comes, spend meaningful moments with their pēpi away from others to say their goodbyes in their own way.

National Awareness Campaign: Neonatal November

Every November, we recognise the 5,000 babies and families who spend time in a Neonatal Unit (NICU or SCBU) each year through our national awareness campaign, Neonatal November, which also includes World Prematurity Day on 17 November, 2025.

We’ll be undertaking various activities to raise awareness of, The Little Miracles Trust and generate vital funds.

Volunteer support helps ensure this campaign is as successful as possible. We’re committed to “making a difficult start to life that little bit easier.”

Together, we can help make those first days easier for every pēpi and whānau. Get involved today because every little miracle deserves the best possible start.

@littlemiraclestrust www.litlemiraclestrust.org.nz

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