New Mums Dianne and Kristy loved reading to their little girl Lola.

For another year running, the RBWH Grantley Stable Neonatology Unit has placed in the international Little Readers Read-a-thon, being named in the top three NICUs world-wide for the Total Minutes Read category.

This year, 41 Australian hospitals and 14 International hospitals, including units in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Portugal, New Zealand, USA and Canada, participated in our Little Readers Read-a-thon which ran from 5-16 September.

From the reading logs submitted throughout the world, a total of 23,494 minutes and 1,692 books were read during the event. Of this, the RBWH NICU clocked up a huge 4966 minutes of reading over the twelve-day period.

Research has shown there are many benefits in reading to babies, from increased bonding to better voice recognition and improved language, reading and math skills in the future.

New Mums Dianne and Kristy were awarded second place in the competition after spending more than 40 hours reading to their brave little girl, Lola.

“Lola made a very early entrance into the world at just 23 weeks and three days, so we’ve spent almost four months in the NICU with her so far,” Dianne said.

“Taking part in the Read-a-thon gave us an opportunity to connect with the other patients in the NICU thanks to some friendly rivalry, as well as a sense of purpose and focus.”

The winning hospitals received a book prize pack for their unit to help build their hospital library for future families.