World Prematurity Day: an important celebration for Vygon

Since 2015, Vygon is committed to celebrate the tiniest and toughest fighters.

Since 2015, Vygon is committed to celebrate the tiniest and toughest fighters.

What is the World Prematurity Day ?

The World Prematurity Day – on November 17th – is the occasion to raise awareness on neonatology, and encourage to improve the treatment and care of all premature babies on an international scale. The aim is to give preemies equal survival chances worldwide without avoidable long-term complications.

What is the history of the World Prematurity Day?

It all started in 1997, when Silke Mader was expecting twins. They were delivered prematurely at 25 weeks of pregnancy, one passed away after one week and the other one is now a growing healthy teenager. This challenging experience taught Silke Mader that there were location-related gaps in premature babies care.
In 2008, she cofounded the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI). She joined forces with PD Dr Matthias Keller, neonatologist, Thomas Föringer, lawyer and Jürgen Popp, father who lost his premature triplets. Since then, their purpose has been to meaningfully improve the care and situation of preterm babies and their families on an European level.
To enhance their impact, they created, in 2009, the International Prematurity Awareness Day which was renamed a couple of years later, World Prematurity Day.

What is Vygon’s place in this event ?

Because we value life, Vygon has dedicated a whole activity to neonatology for more than 40 years, in order to invent engineered single-use medical devices in collaboration with neonatologists. Our objective is to help healthcare professionals to give optimal care to each premature infant worldwide.
That’s why we fully support the World Prematurity Day.
Since 2015, November 17th has been an important date for Vygon and we have celebrated it worldwide. In 2019, 54 countries joined Vygon in the celebration.

What did Vygon organise for the 2023 edition ?
In 2023, Vygon is still committed to celebrate World Prematurity Day following this year’s theme: We Care for the Tiniest.

The caregivers are essentials for the well-being and the development of the premature babies. Healthcare professionals are of course irreplaceable to the babies, and their mission is to bring their medical knowledge to lead the premature babies to their full recovery.

Moreover, parents also have a significant place in the caregiving which usually helps their baby to recover faster. The skin-on-skin contact has shown its benefits on the preemies’ development.

Gather people all over the world to spread this important message of hope and awareness has been one of Vygon’s honorable purpose for 9 years.

For this year’s edition :

We distributed WPD t-shirts and posters to celebrate this special event.
We broadcast 4 video reports on Youtube (see below), each aiming a specific prematurity theme. At the Hospital Center of Valenciennes, we were lucky to meet and interview talented caregivers and loving parents, all eager to spread their knowledge about prematurity to support, in their own way, this important day.
We organized an Escape Game for our collaborators to play and learn more about prematurity, and to realize how their job and Vygon’s products save preemies lives every day. For every participation, a donation was made to an association caring for neonates.
We also elaborated a virtual escape game, for Vygon's collaborators, to raise awareness and collect funds for the same neonates association.
We created a new anthem named “Preemie Love”. A video-clip has been made and released, the 17th november, on social medias.
We created 2 Instagram filters to be used the 17th November. You can find them by typing “Prematurity2023” in the Instagram filter area.
And many other events all over the world will be organized !

How did Vygon contribute to the WPD in 2022?
In 2023, over 40 countries joined us in the celebration.

Many events were organised: cake ceremonies, children’s activities, marathons, illuminations on buildings, donations, festive events in NICUs, etc.
Albania, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vietnam

The first episode of our prematurity sage.

We will bring you in the heart of a neonatal unit, at the Hospital Center of Valenciennes, where every second matters. Dig in the NIDCAP philosophy and discover how it allows to create warm and comforting nests for our little heroes. This philosophy aims to point out that individualized care is essential for every premature infant.

Thank you to the talented caregivers, as well as the parents and the preemies who gave us the opportunity to enter into their little world for one day.

The tiniest patients’ journey #2 – Small feet, Big needs

Our little heroes need continuous and adapted care.

Their lives depend on the hard-work and support of their parents and caregivers.

We met a dedicated nurse, Karine, who took the time to explain how important it is for the medical devices to be carefully designed considering the tiny little patient that will receive the medications.

The caregiver's team is multi-disciplinary.

In this episode, we will focuse on an important actor in the neonatal unit : Isabelle, the lactation consultant. She is in charge of advising the parents and spreads her knowledge about how breastfeeding brings a lot more benefits for the premature newborns. Her role is essential and she keeps a privileged confident relationship with the mothers, to help them do what is best for their babies.

Every day, the nurses help Isabelle to prepare the milk, so that it can be safely given to the hospitalized infants.

Sometimes, premature twins are separated at birth because one them may need intensive care.
The Hospital of Valenciennes aims to provide double-bedded rooms, as many as possible, which allows families to find more comfort and intimacy during this difficult time.
Older brothers and sisters are welcomed and encouraged to visit their younger sibling in the neonatal unit, to show their support!

*Produced in association with SOS Préma & the Hospital Center Valenciennes.*