As maternal child social workers at Calgary’s Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC), we provide care to post-partum, pediatrics, neonatal intensive care and labor and delivery units. We work with new parents regarding concerns of mental health, domestic violence, addictions and social economic issues and how these dynamics may impact their ability to parent.
Part of our role is help patients connect with supports and resources upon discharge from hospital. Sometimes we find ourselves needing to provide a parent with a layette (consisting of diapers, sleepers and blankets) for her baby until further community supports can be provided. It is a struggle to keep the necessary supply of layettes on hand.
While PLC works with many low-income families, the types of families that we typically provide layettes to are the ones that fall just above the eligibility cut off for assistance. The level of need in these families is so great! Parents that usually meet our eligibility requirements to receive a layette include the working poor; women who did not know they were pregnant and therefore did not have time to prepare; and parents who have little/no support or safety nets.
Recently, PLC’s maternity child social work team was awarded $1,995 by HSAA’s Social Justice Committee to purchase layettes for our most precious and vulnerable patients.
Being able to send layettes home with new parents in these situations allows us to ease their sense of panic and provide a safety net of necessities of life for their baby until our community partners can follow up and connect the family to continuing supports.
Thank you HSAA! These layettes will be put to good use!
