Fathers will now have a more comfortable way to stay by the bedside of their partners who have just given birth at Warwick Hospital.
A special chair, which can be folded out into a bed, has been donated to the hospital’s Swan maternity ward.
It will enable dads to stay over in those all-important first few hours and more importantly to assist mums who may have had difficulty during labour - something that was not possible before.
Nikki Francis, founder of support and advice group ‘Mum Knows Best Warwickshire’ and website TakeItFromMummy.com heard that the Maternity Partnership was trying to raise £1,000 for one of five chairs for the side rooms at the hospital and got to work rallying parents and friends in and around Leamington.
She said: “I created a fundraising challenge called ‘Sponsor a Mummy’ to raise some money and was delighted with the support the challenge received.
“I also signed up to do a 10k run which was a huge challenge for me and received lots of sponsorship for that.
“We also had support from local running group Run Like A Girl, which did a sponsored superhero run, and baby group Gymboree held a sponsored ‘Bubble-A-Thon’.
A children’s Christmas Party also helped to boost the amount raised
Nikki added: “In just two months all our hard work paid off and we raised over £1,150 which meant the hospital could order one chair.
But I didn’t want to stop there, I knew we could still make a difference.
“I’m delighted that we were able to raise enough money to purchase a second for the maternity ward. This will make such a difference to so many future parents and their little ones, I know how much of a difference this chair would have made to us when we had our babies in the hospital. I am hoping we can continue to raise money so Swan Ward can fill all the remaining side wards”.
