At Home with Mrs M‘s Meal Planning Monday linky as normal this week. If a very quick and late one as it is bank holiday and I’ve been very busy all day, and without my cute wipe clean board as that is downstairs and I am upstairs in bed, still the sentiment is here.
Tuesday – gnocchi with home made tomato sauce
Wednesday – Mediterranean Cod
Thursday – Chinese chicken / quorn curry after fat club
So, our decision is made, so now how do we raise an only child? Is it possible to raise a contented only child? Can we be happy with only one child? How do we avoid all those things that “might” happen if a child is an only one? Things like:
loneliness
inability to make friends / socialise
not being able to share
having a tendency towards aggression and bossiness
preferring her own company rather than that of others
having an imaginary friend to make up for the lack of siblings
being selfish and demanding her own way all the time
growing up to be a narcissistic and difficult adult
Loneliness - well, there’s no need for an only child to be lonely. For a start there’s nothing wrong with learning to enjoy your own company. I love having some me time and I did as a child too. As soon as I could read I would spend hours and hours with my head buried in a book, with no younger siblings to distract me I got through tonnes of literature. There really are ways around Littlbit growing up as a lonely only child. For a start we surround ourselves with others, it’s just how we are. Littlebit has 5 cousins, all of which love her to death and whom she sees on a pretty regular basis. On top of that Littlebit attends toddler groups every week where she meets and plays with other children. She also has play dates when we can fit them in, so she is around other children. A lot!
Inability to make friends / socialise – if Littlebit is around other children, of varying ages, then surely it follows that she’s going to learn to socialise and interact with them and in future years make friends of those little beings that she’s socialising with? Soon she’ll be old enough to start playgroup too and that will bring it’s own interactions and many, many little people to make friends with.
Not being able to share – sharing is an important life lesson. I intend to focus on social skills in play with Littlebit. Teaching her to compromise, be considerate of others, and to share. Since she won’t be learning these life skills with siblings she’ll need to learn them another way. I am a firm believer in “make believe” and “lets pretend”. Littlebit has a massive range of the Early Learning Centre Happyland toys and we use these to act out scenarios already, I know she doesn’t understand much of it yet but they’re learning even when you don’t realise it.
Books are also a brilliant way of teaching social interaction and skills. I read stories to Littlebit that teach her about these sorts of ideas. And of course not forgetting the wonderful CBeebies. I quote “Many CBeebies programmes deal with the tricky issue of sharing belongings (and people) in ways that young children can connect with. Try watching CBeebies shows together – ones such as Timmy Time or Everything’s Rosie – and use them as a springboards for discussions with your child.
Alternatively, why not cuddle up and watch an episode of the Tweenies, where the main characters often play out many of the dilemmas around sharing that young children experience.”
Having a tendency towards aggression and bossiness – I can see this trait in Littlebit already. Though I’m not sure it’s a sign of an only child, more a sign of an independent, feisty little toddler who wants things her way. I’ve always said Littlebit has the preemie girl’s fighting spirit, those of you who have one will know exactly what I’m talking about. She has such an attitude and shouts, and sometimes screams and goes red in the face when she doesn’t get something she wants. She also lashes out and throws things down in a temper. The terrible twos I hear you say? Maybe, if they start at 8 months old (6 months corrected) then yes. She has always been this way, she knows what she wants and is trying to exert her independence. It’s about how we channel that energy in the right way.
For me this is all about giving her boundaries. An only child can be quite bossy as they’re generally in charge of their play. In the future Littlebit might even try dictating what I should and shouldn’t be doing. Even now we explain to her how she should behave and we let her know that some actions are not going to be tolerated. For example when she throws her dinner on the floor in a fit of rage, said dinner gets taken away for a period of time. She has to understand that her actions have consequences. She is learning this already, a lot less food has hit the deck this week than the last couple of weeks. It may take some time, but I’ve found that if we stand our ground she learns the boundaries.
I believe boundaries are one of the most important things we can give our children. They make them feel secure and let them know that life will have boundaries once they are adults as well.
Preferring her own company rather than that of others – this could happen if she was an only child or not. Some people just prefer their own company, or the company of one or two particular people. If she grows up to be anything like me though she’ll love being in the company of many others. The thing I most enjoy is entertaining people and putting a smile on their faces.
Having an imaginary friend to make up for the lack of siblings – so what if she does? One of my childhood friends had an imaginary friend, he was called Nick. Nick was awesome. I always wished I had a friend like Nick, he got blamed for everything! One of my favourite films when I was growing up was “Drop Dead Fred“, a film about a rambunctious imaginary friend. Anyone remember that film? I watched it over and over again.
Jerome Singer, Ph.D., professor of psychology and child study at Yale University, researched this exact topic and concluded that the imagination required to create make-believe friends “is not the exclusive property of the ‘only’ child, the isolated, the ill or the handicapped. Imaginary friends serve a purpose of meeting a need—to confront loneliness, to combat a fear, or to compensate for feelings of weakness in relation to adults or older children. Any child can feel that need.”
If Littlebit does create an imaginary friend then we can use stories about that friend to teach her some of the social skills I was talking about above.
Being selfish and demanding her own way all the time – Littlebit won’t get a chance to do this. I aim to teach her to be responsible. She already has simple age appropriate tasks to complete, i.e. getting her bib out of the drawer at meal times. This will lead on to bigger chores as she gets older to teach her to be responsible, a life skill that will be important as she grows up. She simply won’t get her own way all the time, whether she demands it or not. We are a three person family and all three parts will play their part. Obviously, she’s still a wee bubba at the moment, it’s not like I have her ironing Daddy’s shirts every night but we’re setting the foundation stones for a future family partnership way of working. If she has ownership of stuff it will help her be more responsible and hopefully in turn less selfish.
Growing up to be a narcissistic and difficult adult – well, I would hope that if we succeed with all of the above then Littlebit won’t end up a narcissistic and difficult adult. But who knows. Maybe these are things that might happen, goodness knows there’s enough narcissists out there, to varying levels. We can but do our best by her!
I’ve had this weeks blog posts about having an only child scheduled for a week or so, I think I wrote them whilst on holiday. Then I was asked to join in the rolling out of the Global Action Report on Preterm Birth today in the UK by Tommy’s. It all ties in quite nicely so please get yourself a cuppa as this is a long, but interesting and incredibly important, read.
When I look at some of the figures in this report it makes me resolute that we have made the right decision not to have any more babies.
Each year 15 million babies are born too early (worldwide).
More than 1 million of those die shortly after birth.
75% of these could survive with inexpensive treatment (in the developing world).
Preterm births are leading cause of death in newborns and second cause of death after pneumonia in children under the age of 5 in the UK.
The numbers of preterm births are rising almost everywhere, including in the UK. Preterm birth rates in the UK are increasing at a rate of 1.5 percent (1990-2010).
UK rates of preterm births are 7.8 percent of live births (2010)
The UK ranks 46thout of 184 countries for numbers of preterm births (2010), even in our developed country with all of our resources we still rank 46th, that amazes me! The countries with the lowest rates are mainly in Northern Europe.
There are nearly 60,000 preterm births per year in the UK (2010)
The risk factors identified in the report are: prior history, underweight, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, infection, maternal age, genetics, multi-fetal pregnancy.
Well, I meet a number of those, lets be honest. Which is the main reason we’re just not going there again. The thought of going through the trauma of an early birth again. The weeks and weeks of waiting to see when we’ll deliver, hoping for a few more weeks as she’ll be stronger then. The weeks and weeks after the delivery to see when we might get to have our baby home, where she belongs. The worry. The constant worry that even though you’re being told your baby is a fighter, a survivor and has very little wrong with her other than needing to grow you still worry that something awful might happen. The worry why she is not growing as fast as the other babies. The worry that this is all your fault, if only you’d been younger / slimmer / fitter then it might not have happened. The worry that there will be some lifelong implications because of her early birth.
Then add to that having my little fighter Littlebit at home, waiting for Mama, and a new baby in the NICU. All those weeks in hospital where you just want to be at your baby’s side but with another child at home, one who has already been through all this and survived and is this amazing little creature who I want to do my best for. Taking her Mama and Daddy away from her would not be good for her. And ultimately if I became pregnant again I’d be risking the worst, taking Littlebit’s Mama away for good. It got close with her, who’s to say they would be able to save me second time around. I don’t want my special little girl to grow up without a Mummy, just because we decided we’d take the risk and try for a brother or sister for her.
This fantastic report states that prevention is key but has yet to be shown to succeed convincingly in any country: information on the best lifestyle choices and risks of non-medically indicated caesarean births before 37 weeks are what is currently advised.
Well, our prevention is becoming a one-child household now. That’s it. We’re done and I finally feel good about the decision. It is absolutely the right thing for us, for Littlebit.
And anyway, who says this isn’t perfect?
This report provides the first ever national, regional and global estimates of preterm birth. The report shows the extent to which it is on the rise globally (particularly in developing countries) and is now the second leading cause of death globally for children under 5, after pneumonia.
I say well played to March of Dimes, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Save the Children and The World Health Organization for commissioning this report. As they state in the report everyone has a role to play. Everyone can help to prevent preterm births and improve the care of premature babies, accelerating progress towards the goal of halving deaths due to pre term birth by 2025. The Every Woman Every Child effort, led by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, provides the framework to coordinate action and ensure accountability. It makes interesting reading.
As they say, everyone has a role to play. Here are some ways you can make an impact:
Join me in the Twitter party this afternoon (Thursday 3rd May) from 3-4pm using the hashtag #borntoosoon
Follow @tommys_baby and @Blisscharity on Twitter for the latest updates and ideas for how you can help.
Make a donation or do some fundraising for Tommy’s or Bliss the leading UK charities researching premature births. If you know us personally you can donate to Bliss through Littlebit’s Sunshine Fund. We’ve raised over £1,600 to date.
Tweet to urge the Health Secretary to make neonatal care in our country an NHS priority. As part of the Bliss SOS (Save Our Specialist nurses) campaign I’m asking you to tweet the Department of Health to stop cuts to baby care and ensure that vulnerable babies are given the best possible start in life. Here, the tweet is even drafted for you, you just need to copy and paste.
@DHgovuk stop cuts to nurses caring for premature and sick babies – make baby care a priority in the mandate to the NHS @Blisscharity
Make it even more unique and tweet about a premature baby you know, just send to @DHgovuk with a reason why they should stop cuts to nurses caring for premature and sick babies.
If you blog then blog about this report, get people talking about it, raise some awareness.
If each of my readers do just one of the above, just think how many people we could reach.
Before I leave you today though I have to say that there is one part of having a second child that I long for. I missed out on what I consider to be the fun part of pregnancy. The last trimester. The bit where people tell you you’re blooming. The bit where it’s so obvious that you’re pregnant and not just fat people ask you all about when it’s due, what sort of birth you want. Simple stuff like that. I never had that.
The bit where the birth happens, the first twinges of labour, the beautiful natural birth I wanted. I didn’t get that. That’s what I signed up for, but instead Littlebit was ripped out of “the sun roof”, to coin a phrase that Kylie from Not even a bag of sugar first introduced me to, 10 weeks early. I was only a few weeks into that fab 3rd trimester. I never experienced a contraction. My waters didn’t break. I’d only just started to feel real kicks. That eats me up.
I do long for that, that “normal” pregnancy. BUT, and it’s a big but, not enough to risk my life in having another baby. It’s just not worth it, in my eyes anyway.
So, that’s it. Our decision is made, so now how do we raise an only child? Is it possible to raise a contented only child? Can we be happy with only one child? How do we avoid all those things that “might” happen if a child is an only one?:
loneliness
inability to make friends / socialise
not being able to share
having a tendency towards aggression and bossiness
preferring her own company rather than that of others
having an imaginary friend to make up for the lack of siblings
being selfish and demanding her own way all the time
growing up to be a narcissistic and difficult adult
I’ll investigate all this later in the week… but for now, here’s a shot of Littlebit enjoying her own company.
Frank Sinatra was one. So was Leonardo Da Vinci. I am one. An only child I mean.
One-child families are on the increase in the UK and the fastest growing family unit in western Europe. In 2010 there were 3.55 million of us.
Even though one child families are on the increase there is generally still a negative view that only children are spoiled, both with time and money, and grow into difficult narcissistic adults who are reluctant to take on responsibility.
I am an only child and I don’t think I was a spoiled brat. Friends please correct me if you think otherwise. Yes, I had my mum to myself while growing up. We weren’t only a single child family but also a single parent family. Yes, I had all her time and attention, and that of my Grandparents largely too. But I don’t think I’m narcissistic and reluctant to take on responsibility. Am I?
I do fear that we will spoil Littlebit. Not necessarily with material things, although I can’t resist a good bargain and Early Learning Centre often has those, but more with time and love. Can you spoil a child with love? I’m not sure that’s even possible. Interestingly though, in China where they have a one child policy the Chinese feared they were raising a generation of “little emperors” when the policy first came into force in 1979. Looking back 20 years later, they found that only children were not particularly spoiled and they saw no difference in only children’s relationships with friends when studied with children who had siblings.
Some research suggests that only children lack professionalism and experience problems with personal relationships in later life. I prefer the much more positive view that only children can be better at making friends as they have to socialise with others. Where a child with siblings has that “safety net”, only children tend not to have. Littlebit plays well with other children, as well as any other child of her age.
Only children are inherently self sufficient. Littlebit already plays well on her own, for hours at a time some days. She is perfectly happy tottering about the place with her toys. I’m not saying that would change if a younger sibling came along, but I don’t think she suffers for not having another child to play with. Certainly not at this early stage anyway.
A small family differs massively from a large one. But then it comes with a completely different set of challenges and rewards.
So, if the incidence of one child families is going up why do I constantly get asked when we’re having another. When I explain that we’re not. Why then do people insist on saying things like:
“My sister / sister-in-law / best friend / cousin / aunt had pre-eclampsia with her first and not with her second, so I’m sure you’d be fine.”
“But surely she needs a little brother or sister? She’ll be lonely”
“You’ll end up spoiling her if you don’t have another.”
“Can’t they control that with medication?”
“Well you’ve had one preemie, you’d cope better the second time round.” Yes, really, someone really said this to me! I mean, seriously people, think about what you are saying!?
I think some of our decision might come down to stamina too. I have so much love to give, but we only have so much time, energy and money. A second child would eat into all of this dramatically. I’m going to be brutally honest here… I’m not sure I have the mental capacity for two either.
I know this one parent, she has two children, one is about 3 years old and the other just 1 year old. She can’t share her attention between the two, one is always the focus, and more often than not it’s the younger, not through choice but through necessity. I am not judging this mum, not in the least. It is the person that she is. She can’t multi task when it comes to her children and I think I would be exactly the same. I am highly strung and get very stressed, very easily, over very little things sometimes, so does hubs. I think the demand of two children would just have me living on a knife edge. All the time. That wouldn’t be good for any of us.
Or am I just making excuses because I know we won’t be having more? We’ve made the decision now and soon it will be done, hubs “op” is booked. I don’t know. I do think I’m not doing too bad a job as a Mama to one though and I honestly don’t believe I’d do such a good job with two.
More on our decision to be a one-child family tomorrow.
About 10 years ago I had a case of an exploding toilet. I always think about this around this time of year when our home insurance is due for renewal, and every year I have a good old giggle.
Now this toilet was in the house where I grew up, the house that by then myself and my first husband owned (jointly with my Mum). We’d never had a problem with said toilet, it was a clean, happy, functioning if a little old fashioned toilet.
Until one day that is. One day when a small person came around my house and unbeknownst to me decided to flush a pair of the ex husbands pants down there.
The toilet then took on a personality of its own. I don’t know what was in those pants but the toilet came to life. It would groan, sing and shudder all of its own accord. It was getting louder and louder, and worse and worse.
Until one day it just wouldn’t flush. When I eventually pulled the chain, with such force that it broke it in half (the chain not the toilet) it did flush. But it flushed and flushed and flushed and flushed and wouldn’t stop. It was spewing toilet water, and other yucky stuff out everywhere. That eventually stopped after about 15 minutes and I called the dreaded drain unblockers, you know those bright orange fellas who bring shame to your door with their bright orange, unmissable vans that scream “this one’s blocked their toilet again with something huge!”
Well, he shoved his big vibrating rod down there (eeeew) and up came the pair of pants along with a backlog of rotten toilet tissue and unmentionables. It was truly gross.
The toilet then gave up the ghost and exploded, with a loud crack like thunder. It was literally there in 2 pieces and then just a hole in the ground.
We then heard another rumble from what sounded like the back garden. I opened the back door and there was sewerage all over the back garden too. The whole lot had exploded, with some force it seemed.
Mr Orange drain unblocker told me to phone our insurers immediately and they’d be able to advise. Thank goodness for him as I’d have never thought of that. I’m a bit of a ditz when it comes to that sort of thing.
It turned out that the drain to the main sewerage pipe was completely shot. When he sent the camera down we could see years of corrosion. I still have the video tape of the camera down that drain, how sad is that! Half the garden had to be dug up, a whole new toilet and cistern installed, new flooring in the toilet and back hall and thousands of pounds later, lots of nasty smelly days and an insurance claim and it was all sorted. Thank goodness!
So, the lesson to learn, never let little people near toilets with men’s pants!!! And, of course, make sure you renew your home insurance.
I have to point out here that this is not ex husbands pants, nor his posterior, but I thought I’d get a photo of mens pants in, for good measure!
This footage shows harrowing cases of neglected and abused animals discovered and investigated by the RSPCA. Please DO NOT watch if you have a weak stomach or are easily upset. Actually, no, watch it anyway. You need to know that this is happening, in this day and age this is STILL happening.
The number of people convicted of cruelty and neglect to animals rose by nearly a quarter last year. The RSPCA warns of a crisis in animal welfare which is stretching its resources to breaking point, as the number of cruelty and neglect convictions has risen by almost a quarter in the past year.
Those of you who know me well will know that I used to work for the RSPCA, so I guess I have a vested interest. But I also have an interest as I cannot bear cruelty to humans or animals. There are some nasty pieces of work out there and the RSPCA work to bring them to justice. However, it costs the RSPCA more than £124m a year to provide its service. They are not government funded, like some believe and all of the local branches are independent charities and must raise their own funds locally.
I have a friend. A very good friend. He is a little mad. He works for the RSPCA too and he’d decided that he’s going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the nutter!
I’ve nicked the following from his JustGiving page, I’m sure he won’t mind though…
“As we all know, times are hard, and because of this the demands on the RSPCA have increased, we have more work to do, and it’s costing more to do it, that’s the bottom line. Sadly we continue to deal with acts of animal cruelty, neglected animals, deliberate cruelty by badger baiters, dog fighters, cock fighters (Yes, these barbaric acts still go on!). People dumping live animals on rubbish tips in bags and sealed cardboard boxes. I could depress you with countless recent cruelty incidents my team and I have had to deal with and show you sad pictures of neglected animals, but what I want to tell you about is the other stuff we do here in the RSPCA Inspectorate….
Did you know that nationally we have specially trained officers who regularly conduct technical rope rescues of animals stuck on rock faces, sea cliffs and down in deep gullies?
We have a large number of officers who are swift water rescue trained to deal with animals stuck in flood water or fast flowing rivers?
We have officers who are specially trained in operating sea boats for dealing with sick and injured seals, whales and other sea mammals, often these officers assist the rope rescue teams at the bottom of sea cliffs.
We have specially selected and trained undercover officers who gather evidence and intelligence regarding organised crime involving animals.
RSPCA officers are trained in the use of rescue boats for assisting sick, injured or trapped animals in rivers, canals and lakes.
Some of our officers are trained in large animal rescues and work with the Fire & Rescue services to deal with incidents such as horse transporters involved in road traffic collisions or farm livestock such as cows stuck in mud and bogs.
Also, some things never change, for the past one hundred and eighty eight years RSPCA officers can often be found under a tree looking up at a cat that is unable to get down! All officers are ladder trained and extracting cats from trees is still a daily activity, and not without its risks, not all cats are helpful!
So, as you can see, not only are we committed to investigating and dealing with animal neglect and cruelty, we are very busy rescuing animals in all sorts of predicaments, and this all costs money, and that’s where you come in. Without the support of the public we would not be able to continue to do all these things. We do not receive any money from the government, it’s all down to good people like you.
I know that there are many, many good causes out there, and that times are hard, but I am asking you, your friends, family and others to please consider making a donation to the RSPCA, it really will make a difference.”
In February 2013 Lee joins a team of ten other RSPCA officers to trek up Kilimanjaro, a climb of over 19,000 feet to raise money, and awareness of their work. He’s working really hard to ensure he’s fit enough to complete the challenge! Get in there Lee.
Please consider donating to this worthy cause. I know I usually focus on babies (preemies especially) and my work for Bliss and Tommy’s and children, and in particular Save the Children and more recently ONE but, and it’s a big but the work of the RSPCA is such a worthy cause. I know we can’t help them all, but I am so very proud of my friend Lee. He’s an amazing fella, and this is an amazing thing he’s doing. Please consider popping over to his JustGiving page, if only to donate a £1.00. Every little helps.
Oh and with regards to the title of this post, that’s just a quote that has stuck in my mind since hearing this is what Lee intended to do. But, getting to the top isn’t optional, he’ll do it. I know he will
More about the ONE Thrive campaign today, just because I feel so damned passionate about how unfair our world is and you, yes YOU can do something to help this. I have. And I’m not even asking for your hard earned cash, just your signature. It’s SO easy to do. You could even go that one step further and spread the news, tweet about it, pop it on your Facebook status for a couple of hours. Come on, do it now.
Here’s why…
THE PROBLEM
Millions of people are locked in a vicious cycle of hunger and poverty. Poverty means parents can’t feed their families enough nutritious food, leaving children hungry and malnourished. Malnutrition leads to irreversibly stunted development and shorter, less productive lives.
Less productive lives mean no escape from poverty. We have to break this cycle.
THE PROBLEM – IN NUMBERS
More than a billion people, one in five of the world’s population, live on less than $1.25 a day. A billion people will go to bed hungry or malnourished tonight.
This year, 178 million children, more than twice the number of children in the United States, will reach their 3rd birthday stunted. Their brains and bodies will never fully recover.
WHAT WE WANT
ONE launched Thrive: Food. Farming. Future. on 10th April 2012. It’s their most ambitious campaign yet, and it will run until 2015.
Thrive calls on each of us to play our part to break the cycle of hunger and poverty, tackling their root causes. If we achieve our goals by 2015, we could see 15 million fewer children chronically malnourished and 50 million people lifted out of extreme poverty. How indescribably AWESOME would that be?
The world has seen a host of efforts to fight hunger, but many achieved only short-term gains. Few of them have addressed the root causes of hunger and poverty. This campaign will call for a new ambition and a new determination.
HOW WE’LL DO IT
To achieve our goal, ONE is calling on African leaders, donor governments and the private sector to focus on thirty of the poorest countries that have smart agriculture and nutrition plans. Those plans are tested, costed and affordable. They need to be put into practice. For that they need two things: political leadership and financial backing. ONE’s campaign will insist on both.
But we know leaders won’t act unless lots of people urge them to do so. ONE’s strength is in our collective action – one plus one plus one quickly adds up to a lion’s roar.
Most people would do anything they could to help one hungry child. Together, we can stop malnutrition, not just for one child but for 15 million. We can end poverty, not just for one person but for 50 million. Together we can break the cycle.
Tweet using the hashtag #LetsThrive
And if that’s not inspiration enough then look at this, Kangaroo care, encouraged from day 1 in this country (where possible):
And then watch this:
Just one small example of the life changing work ONE are doing.
The week before last my husband sent me a link to an article about this mother and baby.
It is an amazing story. Just amazing! But the bit that “got me” the most is in the article, where it states that “Luz is said to be improving, although health officials said that like any baby born three months prematurely, she has a 10 per cent chance of survival.” Littlebit was born nearly 3 months prematurely, yet she had an 80% plus chance of survival. In fact March of Dimes suggest Littlebit had a 96% survival rate. Why the difference? Simple, we live in a 1st world country, Luz lives in a 2nd world country. Now imagine she’d been born in the 3rd world, would she stand a chance at all?
The same week I saw fellow bloggers writing and tweeting about ONE’s Thrive campaign.
ONE.org is a grass roots campaigning and advocacy organisation that is giving a voice to those who are not heard. They recently launched their new campaign Thrive: Food. Farming. Future. They seek to ensure that those children thrive and grow into healthy adults who are able to feed and sustain themselves with the promise of a bright future.
The key aims of the Thrive campaign are that by 2015 -
We could see 15 million fewer children chronically malnourished and
50 million people lifted out of extreme poverty
The way it should be, right?
How awful is it that if Littlebit had been born in a 3rd world country she more than likely wouldn’t be here now?
I don’t want to imagine not having this!
Please sign the petition and get your voice heard. Help to lift people out of poverty! Help stop mums losing their premature babies, their sick children, their own lives just because they are poor.
And please drop by Mummy from the heart‘s blog as she has a list of other bloggers who have joined in the campaign.
