Wordless Wednesday

Give The Gift For Life

Pampers and UNICEF's 1 Pack = 1 Vaccine Campaign - The Gift Of Life

On Monday I had the great honour to attend a press conference in London for the launch of this year’s Unicef and Pampers 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign.

I also got the chance to meet some other fab mummy and daddy bloggers! I met Rosie from Rosie Scribble, Tim from Bringing up Charlie, Karin from Cafe Bebe, Hazel from Hot Cross Mum, Babyccino, Dad.ie, Manic Mammy and Mummymaps.

from L-R - Me, Natascha, Tim, Rosie and Karin

We also meet Natascha Mcelhone who is this year’s celebrity ambassador, who is really nice and very passionate about this campaign.

We had a lovely day (well I did) , we had a good amount of time to all have a chat (mainly about kids and blogging!!) then we had the press conference where they explain what they were doing and why they were doing it, then a yummy lunch and more time to chat!!

I suppose I better actually tell you about the campaign!

Pampers has joined forces with UNICEF for the fourth year running as part of its ongoing dedication to helping eliminate maternal and newborn tetanus by 2012.

Since the start of the campaign in 2006, thanks to the support of mums in the UK and around the world, Pampers has provided the funding for a life-saving dose of the Tetanus vaccine for a mother and her baby every two seconds. This amounts to over 200 million tetanus vaccines donated to UNICEF.

This year, together with the support of UK mums, Pampers is hoping to raise the funding for a further 100 million vaccines to help UNICEF eliminate this deadly disease history.
UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) believe that the goal of eliminating maternal and newborn tetanus could be possible by 2012. UNICEF’s goal is to support countries in achieving maternal and newborn tetanus elimination

So what is maternal and newborn tetanus?

Maternal and newborn tetanus, are deadly diseases caused by bacteria that lives on dead and decaying matter in soil, animal dung and faeces, usually begin with the contamination of an open wound. When the bacteria enter an open wound they begin to work as a nerve toxin (poison), affecting the central nervous system and causing painful and uncontrolled muscle spasms. Tetanus can cause one of the most painful deaths known to man. Anyone can contract maternal and newborn tetanus if they are not vaccinated; however, it is usually newborns and women in remote rural areas without access to antenatal care or immunisation that become infected.

Once maternal and newborn tetanus have been contracted there is no real cure. In rural areas of less industrialised countries where health infrastructure is very limited, almost all infants that are infected with newborn tetanus die. Even today over 90% of the babies that suffer from newborn tetanus and who have no access to treatment facilities will die

Newborn (Neonatal) tetanus occurs when newborns are infected as a direct result of unhygienic birthing practices, such as cutting the umbilical cord with un-sterile instruments, handling it with dirty hands or treating it with contaminated dressings and traditional substances such as ghee, cow dung, ashes and mud. Mothers can be infected with maternal tetanus during an unsafe or unsanitary delivery

Maternal and newborn tetanus are completely preventable through immunisation and hygienic birth practices. Women receiving two doses of tetanus vaccine at least four weeks apart will be protected for three years after the second dose. During that protective period, any babies born to these women will be protected for the first two months of life. Three doses of the tetanus vaccine are needed to fully protect a woman for five years and any babies born to this woman for its first two months.

So what can you do to help? During October, November and December 2009, for every Pampers product purchased with the ‘1 Pack = 1 Life-Saving Vaccine’ logo, Pampers will provide UNICEF with funding for one life-saving tetanus vaccine to help protect a mother and baby in need

I’m not asking you to completely switch to Pampers if its not a brand you buy but if you just switched once in this period that’s 1 extra vaccine!And its not just nappies its wipes as well. If every member of British Mummy Bloggers bought a pack of nappies or wipes that would be 645 vaccines! How easy is that?

You can also open a Virtual Gift For Life and 1 vaccine will be donated! So do that as well or instead!

As bloggers we have been asked to write about and support this campaign, we were also given a physical Gift For Life to pass around, so watch this space for what I will do with mine.

To start the campaign off that launched today I am starting a Gift For Life Meme!

And here are the rules

1 Open the virtual Gift For Life by going here
2 Write a small post on the campaign
3 Pass on to 5 other bloggers
4 Add the campaign badge to your sidebar
5 Feel incredibly proud that you are helping to make a difference!!

I am passing the Gift Of Life onto:

Baby Baby
Really Rachel
Insomniac Mummy
Ramblings of a Mum on The Run
And1moremeans4

I will be updating you on the campaigns progress over the next three months and watch out for more posts on the campaign!

Thank you in advance for your help and support
NM X