Welcome to Embrace
Supporting parents in the neonatal unit at East Surrey Hospital
Embrace is an outreach initiative run by the members of Christ Central Church in Redhill. We, however, welcome support and input from anyone and everyone who feels compelled to support the parents in the neonatal unit at East Surrey Hospital.
We are the only charity dedicated to the unit and the money raised by our supporters goes directly to fund projects to support the parents during an often very difficult and worrying time.
Embrace provides refreshments on the ward and on key occasions like Christmas, Mothers & Fathers Day, World Prematurity Day and Easter Embrace decorates the unit and gives gifts to families.
We also make and supply incubator covers and bonding squares through wider Redhill and Reigate community involvement and outreach.
In the words of hospital staff…
In the words of families we have supported…
Want to get involved and stay up to date with our work?
We’re always keen to hear from anyone and everyone who wants to support our work. Here’s four key ways you can get involved.
Our Facebook group
Our Facebook is group is the place to be to hear all the latest news and to find out about our campaigns throughout the year.
Pray
We’d love you to join us in praying for the wellbeing and healing of the babies born sick or premature at East Surrey Hospital. Please also pray for Embrace’s holistic care, that we would be able to support parents well, and in a sensitive and appropriate manner.
Give
All the money raised by our supporters goes directly to fund our projects to support the parents during an often very difficult and worrying time.
Get in touch
We’d love to hear from you! You can email Keata Murray at embrace@christ-central.org.uk.
Sewing Projects
Do you enjoy sewing, but wonder how your skills can be put to good use?
Why not try one of these simple projects? We have had so much positive feedback from families who have appreciated not just the practicality of the items, but the care and love that has gone into making them.
Calling all sewers! We are looking for lots of pairs of bonding squares for our neonatal mums.
About the squares…
Squares should be made from 100% cotton, washed and ironed, and sent to us at Christ Central (please do not hand them in to the baby unit).
We would like the squares to be made with baby friendly patterns that mum s will love. If you don’t have any fabric like this, don’t worry. We are sure they will appreciate whatever you have in your stash!
Instructions…
For more information, you can download our instructional PDF.
Where to send them…
Please send completed pairs of bonding squares to:
Christ Central, Embrace
3 London Road
Redhill
RH1 1LY
Incubator Covers
We are always happy to receive incubator covers for the unit.
If you would like to help, please download the PDF instructions or get in touch with us!
Our latest updates…
The Embrace room is OPEN!
[November 2020] In October 2019 we were shown the room that was destined to be the new dedicated family room in the newly built neonatal unit at East Surrey Hospital. Originally a storage cupboard we instantly fell in love with the space and started to re-imagine it as a place for families to go in to be refreshed, nourished, catch their breath.
Having served complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits to families thanks to West Central’s generosity since 2016, we knew we had to be involved in the design and started to get to work with Matron Ingrid Marsden’s approval. With limited skills but a lot of passion, Helen Davies, Jo Burgess and I started to put our thoughts down using a free online space planning tool!
We posted an update on Instagram in March about this project, vision, and our first working session and it was very soon after that, that we received a “project changing” message from a very awesome local Dad and architect to say that he wanted to 100% volunteer his firm, Campbell & Co Architects architectural services to help us get the vision of the room realised!
While the world was locking down, doors and opportunities were being unlocked for future neonatal families and we couldn’t have felt more blessed by a pro like Jamie and his very talented architectural team Campbell and Co Architects in Reigate. Jamie hosted Jo, Helen, and I on a couple of ZOOM calls soon after lockdown started to hear our own personal stories, vision, and practical requirements for the room. Fast forward a few weeks, lots of designing, a site visit by Jamie to the hospital to check our measuring and transferring our wonky excel spreadsheet design into a gorgeous proposal complete with sketches, a colour chart, and mood boards to present to the NNU management team. Not surprising we very quickly gained approval of the gorgeous designs from them!
The room is now finished and open for parents to enjoy!
Here’s Keata and Jo telling us all about the new Embrace room…
