Tiny Tickers Information

1 in every 100 babies born in the UK has a serious heart condition. That's around one baby born every two hours fighting congenital heart disease (CHD). Tiny Tickers is the only UK charity dedicated to the early detection and care of those babies. We know that spotting a heart defect as early as medically possible improves a baby's chances of survival and long-term quality of life. Sadly, 1,000 heart babies leave hospitals every year with no-one knowing they have a life-threatening heart condition, putting them in grave danger of going into heart failure. Some of those babies won't make it back to hospital in time to receive the treatment that could save them. Tiny Tickers is changing that. We train sonographers to have the skills and confidence to detect heart defects at pregnancy scans. We know it works - the antenatal detection rate of heart defects has more than doubled from 23% to 53.5% since we started our work (NICOR). Since 2016, we have trained more than 3,000 sonographers. Through spreading awareness of the key signs and symptoms of CHD, we teach new parents and those working with babies to Think HEART, so they can recognise the five key signs a baby may have an undiagnosed heart defect. Our Think HEART videos, leaflets and social media posts have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. Another core part of our work is supporting the families of heart babies as they face the toughest of journeys. From diagnosis, to birth, surgery, recovery and beyond, we are there for heart families. We provide them with detailed information they can trust, share stories of those who have been there before them and connect them with others through our support group forum and online peer support groups. Our message to these families is always, 'You are not alone. There is a community here to support you.' Many parents describe our support services as a lifeline during their darkest hours.