Aim The Small Wonders Change Programme was developed to address the current gap between policy and practice by supporting practitioners in helping parents of a premature or sick baby to be more central to their baby’s care.

Methods The Small Wonders DVD at the core of this program follows the stories of families going through the first weeks and months of life in a neonatal unit and shows how they can be actively involved in touching, handling, skin-to-skin care and feeding with breast milk.

Results A survey of all the hospitals that had already received the Small Wonders DVD showed 83% of their staff had watched one or more of the films and 84% of their staff rated the DVDs as “very useful” or “extremely useful”. Oneregion used Small Wonders as a catalyst for change as part of a much larger innovation programme across midwifery and neonatal. The DVD was embedded into key aspects of care in 18 neonatal units across 2 neonatal networks over a 35 week period. The DVD was used directly with parents and in neonatal clinical workshops to enhance staff knowledge, skills and confidence, and to explore the feasibility of and then action changes to everyday practice. Following this intervention, there was a 20% increase in the proportion of babies receiving skin-to-skin care across the region. The proportion of babies receiving any breast milk at discharge from a neonatal unit in the region rose from 40% in November 2011 just before the DVD was introduced to 52% by July 2012.

Conclusion Small Wonders has now entered its second year and has been centrally funded for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.