Good Morning Britain launches first cards for premature babies

Inspired by the personal story of Good Morning Britain’s weather presenter Laura Tobin - whose daughter Charlotte was born three months early - Good Morning Britain and Hallmark have teamed up with baby charity Bliss to produce a range of special cards for sick and premature babies.

A focus group of parents was organised by GMB and local hospital charity Bibs (Babies in Buscot Support). They talked to writers from Hallmark, to help them understand each step of their premature baby’s journey through neonatal care. Four different designs were created and 20p from each sale will be donated to leading premature baby charity Bliss.

Laura explained: “Our baby Charlotte was born extremely premature, three months early, and it was a very stressful time. Friends and family want to offer support but it’s hard to know what to say and do, especially as we were in hospital with Charlotte every day.

“Sending a traditional baby card with a baby on, or cute images, may be upsetting to parents of premature babies as it reminds them of what they are missing out on - a baby at home. Also cards like ‘thinking of you’, could imply the worst. Quite a few people sent blank cards with personal messages inside as they wanted to let us know they were thinking of us.

“When one of the GMB team said how hard it had been to find a suitable card to send when Charlotte was born, that sparked the idea. I thought it was so lovely, tears came to my eyes. There were no cards like this on sale before, these are the first ever. So having special premature baby cards will mean people know they are offering support to the parents at what is a very emotional time.”

The cards are available from Amazon, Selected Tesco, Morrisons and specialist card and gift shops from July 23rd and Laura unveiled them on today’s GMB.