Grieving for Babies - Grieving for NICU Babies

Grieving for Babies is an online web resource that provides guidance for grieving families and NICU providers.

Developed and produced by by DIA Productions in collaboration with SHARE Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Children's Hospital and Stepstone Productions, Grieving for Babies offers resources for parents and professionals.

Programs from Grieving for Babies
Grieving in the NICU: Mending Broken Hearts When a Baby Dies - For Families This program is directed towards the needs of grieving family members. The DVD includes a 70-minute chaptered video addressing topics of the initial shock and intense grief, carrying on with life, the grief of siblings and grandparents, and the role of chaplains throughout the bereavement process.

Grieving in the NICU: Supporting Families and the Health Team When a Baby Dies - For Providers
This program is designed to help health care professionals play an integral part in the lives of parents faced with the death of a baby.

I am signed up to take the Grieving in the NICU Supporting Families and the Health Team for continuing education units. I will keep you posted as to the results of taking the course.

For More on Grieving for Babies see their website.

Books for NICU Babies Program

Books for Babies is a wonderful idea to let NICU parents at the University of Missouri's Children's Hospital do something with their baby that lets them feel like a normal parent--read their newborn a book.

The program is the brainchild of neonatologist and former Health Sciences Center fellow Colleen Rose, MD. Books for Babies provides parents with free storybooks to read to their hospitalized infants. The cost is a mere $3 book for the ability to help NICU parents give their babies the love they need to thrive and grow.

Babies recognize their parents voices. These voices can be a great source of comfort. Reading to NICU babies has been show to have a positive effect--improving oxygen uptake and making the heartbeat more regular.

A Chance to Focus on Being a Parent
Judy Bildner, NICU case manager and a coordinator of the Books for Babies Program at Children's Hospital talks about the unique benefits of the program:

This is a program helps parents bond with their babies and helps them focus on something else besides drugs, monitors and ventilators.

An Opportunity to Improve Development
Elizabeth James, MD, chief of neonatology at the Health Sciences Center, praises for the program developed by Dr. Rose's friend and former teacher.

It involves parents in doing something for their children that is helpful. And we know from the literature that kids who are read to develop better.

For More Information:
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Adopts Book Program. University of Missouri Health Care. See Books for Babies at the University of Missouri Health System website.

Inspirational Website - Pitter Patter: A Message of Hope from a Former Preemie

I found the most inspiring website today for NICU parents. It is the story of a former NICU preemie, created by the former NICU baby, herself to spread a message of hope to NICU Parents.

About the Site
PitterPatter.info is a website created by a former preemie with a message of hope for parents of preemies. To spread her message of hope, the author created and distributed business cards about the site to NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) and March of Dimes offices.

The image above compares her actual birth footprints are near actual size (approximately 1 1/2 inches) compared to the letter tiles (3/4 inches).

Her site was also Girl Scout Gold Award Project.

For more information visit the website: http://www.pitterpatter.info/

6/4 - Comforting Moment - Information Helps During Times of Loss

For many parents the loss of a baby is among the highest levels of loss, if not the highest.

While little can assuage the difficult and forgotten grief surrounding stillbirth and neonatal death, information can be helpful regarding the normal feelings and experiences which leave parents in an emotional and spiritual wilderness.

Dr. Elizabeth K. Best

While information cannot take away the intense pain and sorrow you are feeling, getting informed and reading useful resources can help parents to understand the physical and emotional responses and find ways of managing these responses.

Information can also help parents find suggestions and resources that others who have been in similar situations have found to be helpful during their own time of loss.

Scope of NICU Parent Support Blog and Site

A recent study of NICU parents found a large percentage of those completing the survey wanted more information made available to them about the organization of the NICU and whom to talk with about any questions and concerns that they had. One mother wrote,

Most parents in this situation want and need information as well as support! There should be a much more extensive library or articles and information accessible to parents.

The blog is here along with the NICU Parent Support website, the "My Baby's in the NICU: Now What?" e-Book (both due to be released by the end of June) and the series of NICU Parent Support Lens on Squidoo to provide information, encouragement and support for NICU parents as they find a way of making it through the NICU experience.

All of these resources have been created by a former NICU Parent, physician and professional educator to inform, reassure, calm, encourage and comfort parents coping with the admission of their baby to the Neonatal Intensive Care NICU.

Scope of the NICU Parent Support Site
The blog, the website and the lenses will cover many different aspects of the NICU experience from surviving the early days filled with shock and anxiety to the apprehension that parents often feel when taking their newborn home.

• Information - Articles, Research, Reflections from a Former NICU Parent
  
• Resources - Links to beneficial resources, other sites, latest research and products
  
• Encouragement - Weekly Encouraging Messages are posted to the blog.
  
• Inspiration - Messages and Links to other sites, other stories of inspiration
  
• Comfort - Comforting Messages and Thoughts are posted to the blog.
  
• Support - Through the blog, the website, the Squidoo lenses and the e-Book.
  

Several lenses have been created at Squidoo for NICU Parents:

• NICU Parent Support Site Lens - The overall organizing lens
• My Baby's in the NICU: Now What?
• Surviving Your NICU Experience - Advice for NICU Parents and Families
  
• CarePages - Connecting Friends and Family During Times of Challenge
  

Resources for NICU Parents Whose Baby is Dying
There are also resources, comfort and support for those parents who never get to take their newborns home, since some babies live out their entire short life in the NICU. Resources, suggestions and comfort are provided for those parents who must cope with the fact that their NICU baby is dying and then must face the death of a NICU baby.

• Information - Articles, Research, Reflections from a Former NICU Parent
  
• Resources - Links to beneficial resources, other sites, latest research and products
  
• Comfort - Comforting Messages and Thoughts are posted to the blog.
• Hope - Messages of hope and links to other sites, other stories of hope, even at the end of life
  
• Support - Through the blog, the website, the Squidoo lenses and the e-Book.

Two lenses have been created at Squidoo for NICU Parents whose Babies are dying:

• My NICU Baby is Dying: Now What?
• My NICU Baby has Died: Now What?