We are looking for volunteers and helping hands for our project, Will you join us?
Come along to do some hands-on community service by helping us with our Project, and find out more about Altrusa and meet our members.

Altrusa International of Christchurch Inc is having a working bee to cut out, sew and construct Cuddle Hearts for the project coordinated by Lisa Paget of Rolleston. There will be tasks for non-sewers as well as sewing experts. The Club is providing most of the required equipment and resources from our project funds, but feel free to bring along sharp scissors or a sewing machine if you have one.

Here is some information about the Cuddle Hearts project itself:
Cuddle hearts are small cotton fabric hearts shared between mothers and babies and proven to have benefits for both. Babies’ senses develop in the womb and by the time they’re born, not only do they recognise their mother’s voice, but they can identify her scent. The sound of their mother and her smell are comforting and familiar to newborns and in return, mothers have a physical and hormonal reaction to the scent and sound of their baby.

More about Altrusa:
We are a member organisation with Clubs around New Zealand, and internationally. We believe that everyone is able to make a positive difference to the world around them. We can each volunteer our time, or donate our money, towards worthy causes. Our individual efforts may be small, but combined they matter.

We can achieve even more when we bring people together. For over 100 years Altrusa clubs have gathered members from varying occupations and lifestyles, all sharing an interest in community service.

We enjoy the friendship, fun and satisfaction that comes from working together for the benefit of others. Each club develops a programme that is tailored to local needs, undertaking a variety of hands-on service and fundraising projects each year. One of our shared goals as an organization is to improve literacy, which we believe is the key to opportunity.

This is a great opportunity to contribute and find out more about what we do, and the exciting events we have coming up that we'd love you to get involved in with us.

The hearts giving NICU babies the ‘sweet scent’ of their parents

Wei Shao

Wei Shao The Press, October 17, 2023

An idea from heartbreak two years ago has since become something of a tradition for premature babies in Christchurch Women’s Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Lisa Paget, founder of NICU Cuddle Hearts, has been helping the babies and their parents “have scent connection” when skin-to-skin is limited.

A heart is placed underneath the baby inside their incubator or crib to absorb their scent. Parents also wear one, and the hearts are swapped at the end of the day.

“NICU babies in incubators often can’t be held or breast-fed, missing out on important physical contact and bonding with their whānau. “It just gives them something sweet and cosy... not clinical, not hand gel smell, IV drops or cold tubes.”

Paget decided to bring Cuddle Hearts to NICU babies in Canterbury after a heart-breaking journey to Australia in 2021.

“My twin nieces Kohana and Harlyn were born at 27 weeks. At the NICU there, fabric hearts were shared between parents and their babies.

“It was the saddest moment in my life that we had to say goodbye to Kohana... I told her that auntie Lisa would come back to New Zealand and I would start the programme here,” Paget said.

Paget said Te Whatu Ora staff embraced her quest and community support had been “overwhelmingly amazing”.

Paget said she has received “a couple hundred” hearts every month, but she “still needs some more”.

“Hearts keep coming from all over New Zealand... making Cuddle Hearts is a legacy for Kohana. Also, I do it for myself, as it gives me a new life, something sweet to expect every single day.”

More than 3000 hearts were given out each year in Christchurch, said Tracy Jackson, Women’s and Children’s.