After a brief pause caused by the Russian-Ukranian War, The Huggies “Born for a Hug” program, which was first established in Ukraine in 2015 in an effort to support families and newborns in their early days, has resumed. The program aims to promote the Kangaroo method – caring for babies born prematurely and needing special attention and care. The method helps these babies adapt faster to the environment by boosting their emotional and psychological development, and providing many other benefits.

The program is executed in Ukraine in partnership with the “Early Birds” association of parents of premature babies and was approved by the Association of Neonatologists of Ukraine.

As a part of the “Born for a Hug” program, our consultants provide Huggies special diapers for premature babies, called Huggies Little Snugglers, to parents whom they support. In addition, the company seeks to assist with the implementation and application of the Kangaroo method by:

• organizing training of medical personnel in this technique;
• advising mothers and other individuals looking after a child on how to care for a highly fragile infant;
• informing where and how to get legal assistance and psychological support if necessary;
• providing information on how mothers should handle things after the hospital discharge and what care and examinations are needed during this period, etc.

During the current Russian-Ukrainian war, parents and especially mothers of premature babies need special support and attention. That is why the consultants from the “Born for a Hug” program continue to be side by side with women in labor in hospitals wherever possible.

“I could not leave the maternity hospital staff in a situation where they were catastrophically shorthanded, and everyone collapsed from exhaustion. For a while, I had to live there with the mothers and the staff who were continuously swapping with each other,” says Halyna Fedchenko, a Huggies® consultant at the Kyiv Regional Perinatal Center.

In total, there are six locations today where Ukrainian families can get access to the program; in Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Poltava, and this number will continue to grow.

Kimberly-Clark considers it especially critical to continue the implementation of social projects in Ukraine as part of its global mission to provide “Better Care for a Better World and to help residents of Ukraine in these difficult times by providing access to both essential products and expertise.