Tiny Tickers

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Tiny Tickers is working for a better start for babies with congenital heart disease, even before they are born

The Need

5,000 babies are born with congenital heart disease (CHD) each year in the UK.   Half of these babies will have major CHD and will require surgery or intervention in the first year of life. 

When babies with heart problems are diagnosed before birth, health professionals can plan for their care effectively by supporting and preparing the parents and ensuring that the baby is born in the right conditions with immediate access to the specialist treatment they require. 

Unfortunately only 37% of babies with heart problems are currently detected before birth, meaning that over 3,000 babies are born each year into a potentially life-threatening and distressing situation.

Heart problems can also be difficult to detect after birth. Studies show that about half of heart babies are sent home without a diagnosis and are therefore at risk of collapse and possible brain damage.

What we do

Tiny Tickers is the only charity that exists to improve the detection, diagnosis and care of heart babies, before and immediately after birth. We are a small national charity that aims to have a very practical impact by increasing the detection rate of CHD in the UK.

We give tiny hearts a better START by working in the following areas...

• Standards - to improve care, using appropriately trained and qualified resources
• Training - to improve screening in hospitals, especially at the routine ultrasound anomaly scan
• Awareness - to inform the public and health professionals about congenital heart disease
• Research - to increase our understanding of prenatal cardiovascular disease and its impact
• Together - working with charities, professionals, businesses and supporters to make this a reality

 Achievements

To date, we have trained two thirds of maternity hospitals in the UK, successfully lobbied for the introduction of improved heart screening protocols and helped to increase average national detection rates over the past decade from 25% to 37%.  Last year alone 252,000 pregnant women will have received better quality screening of their baby’s heart as a direct result of our training.