Encouraging Message: Standing at Times of Challenge

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday and the upcoming National Day of Service, today's inspiring quote comes from one of his inspiring sermons.

These words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. can serve as an encouraging message for NICU Parents:

The ultimate measure of
a man (or woman)
is not where
he (or she) stands
in moments of comfort,
but where
he (or she) stands
at times
of challenge and controversy.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

NICU Parents find themselves facing times of challenge, a true test of their measure. Many of us discover internal strengths that they many never have even known they possessed.

It is this new-found strength that sustains us through the NICU challenge and allows us to hang on, when things seem impossible.

Image: Vivek Chugu. Attached 2. Royalty Free Use.

NICU Parent Support CarePages

CarePages recognized that staying in touch with loved ones and friends while also managing a healthcare challenge can be difficult. But staying connected is a crucial component to getting, and staying well—for both patients and caregivers.

The NICU Parent Support CarePages allows you to stay connected with family, friends and colleagues before, during and after a healthcare challenge through a unique CarePages website.

CarePages provides free, private websites that make it easy to:

• Update family, friends and even colleagues all at once
• Share photos
• Collect supporting messages from loved ones and friends
• Learn more about healthcare issues
• Connect to others with similar concerns

CarePages unique service allows you to create a personal, private web page to help family and friends communicate when a loved one is facing a challenge at the beginning of life as a newborn.

A CarePage is a great way for NICU parents to easily keep their loved ones updated on their NICU baby's condition.

For More Information

• NICU Parent Support CarePages
  
• Squidoo Lens on CarePages

Knit One Save One and Save a Life

Knit One Save One is a joint project from Save the Children and the Warm Up America! Foundation are calling all knitters to make hats to cover tiny heads and save millions of babies globally.

These two organizations are encouraging people who knit and crochet (and those who want to learn how to knit and crochet) to make hats for newborns.

The Knit One, Save One Project is a great way to introduce children to knitting, crocheting and activism.

More about Knit One Save One
Research shows that 60 percent of the 4 million newborn deaths that occur each year could be prevented if mothers and children in poor countries had access to a simple package of health measures.

This low-cost, effective package includes antibiotics to fight infections, immunizations against tetanus, training for birth attendants, education on breastfeeding and basic care for newborns such as keeping a baby warm with a knit cap, even those born in hot climates.

You can find out More about the Knit One Save One Campaign at the Save the Children Website and the Lion's Brand Yarn Featured Charity Page.

Free Preemie Hat Patterns
The Lion's Brand Yarn Company website provides 11 freely available patterns, some to knit, some to crochet that work for premature and tiny babies.

Read more about Knit One Save One at Squidoo.

Updates 2/2009:
Save the Children's Knit One, Save One Campaign was a huge success. Thanks to the skills and creativity of thousands of knitters over 100,000 caps will be delivered to mothers and newborns in countries like Ethiopia, Nepal and El Salvador.

From the Heart of a Parent - Bereavement Photography for Grieving NICU Parents

A very special group of volunteer photographers help provide a priceless gift to grieving NICU parents, that of documenting their baby's brief life through something called Bereavement Photography.

In this video clip bereaved parents share their experiences with infant loss and with benefiting from the donated services of the NILMDTS (Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep) remembrance photographers.




About Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation
The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) administers a network of almost 7,000 volunteer photographers in the United States and twenty-five countries. At a family's request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session.

The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby.

More:
Dyer K. 2008. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Bereavement Photography) on NBC's Today Show. NICU Parent Support Blog.
Dyer K. 2007-8. Bereavement Photography. Squidoo.com

Comforting Moment: Grieving is a Natural Process

I really like this quote about the grieving process. It is a good way to explain to NICU Parents that grief is a normal, natural process. It is a normal response to an abnormal event.

No one would argue that having a child in the NICU is an abnormal event.

Grieving is as natural as
crying when you are hurt,
sleeping when you are tired,
eating when you are hungry,
or sneezing when your nose itches.

It’s nature’s way
of healing a broken heart.

Doug Manning

Quote Source: Don't Take My Grief Away
This helpful quote comes from Doug Manning's Book, Don't Take My Grief Away: What to Do When You Lose a Loved One available on Amazon.

Manning also reminds readers that "Grief is not an enemy; it is a friend. It is the natural process of walking through the hurt and growing through the walk."

These simple expressions help remind us that Grief is a normal response.

In this book Manning takes the reader through all the emotions and experiences that accompany the death of a loved one.

Image Source: Don Wright. Broken Hearts. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

The Violet Heart Collection - A Way to Acknowledge Your Heart is Crying

Violets emerge after the long dark winter to announce the beginning of spring;
these unassuming flowers represent rebirth, renewal and hope.

Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS

What is the Violet Heart™?
The Violet Heart™ image "grew" emerging like flowers in the spring after a long winter...out of my professional experiences with grief and loss and my personal unexpected NICU experience with my youngest daughter who was hospitalized soon after her birth in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with a life-threatening condition.

I'd wanted something to wear when my daughter was in the NICU, an indicator that I was holding her in my thoughts and grieving the loss of not having her home with me. The Violet Heart Pins and other gift items grew out of that desire to express my love for my daughter.

The Violet Heart™ design combines the courage of the Purple Heart, the tears shed by a sorrowful spirit, the healing nature of the color violet with the hope of spring violets to represent courage, healing & hope. It is a simple way of revealing behind the smile, inside a heart that is crying.

What is the Violet Heart Collection™?
The Violet Heart Collection features pins, items and gifts designed for people facing a life changing event and to recognize that someone is experiencing a challenge or transition.

Violet Heart Pins
The Violet Heart cloisonné pin can be given to express heartfelt sympathies during challenging times, to acknowledge the courage of those facing a significant life challenge or to recognize a current or past challenge.

Both versions of the Violet Heart Pin have the quote describing the Violet Heart:

A simple way of revealing behind the smile,
inside a heart is crying.

Several other cloisonné pin are available. These pins measure between 5/8 and 7/8 of an inch and come attractively displayed on a 2 x 3 1/2 inch card and are available through PayPal for $5.99 plus 2.50 Shipping and Handling.

Find out more about the Violet Heart Collection at the Violet Heart website. To order see the Squidoo pages created for the Violet Heart Collection:

• The Violet Heart Collection
• The Violet Heart Collection on Squidoo
• The Violet Heart Collection on CafePress

Photo Source: Louise Docker. Violets. Royalty Free Use.

Identifying, Understanding and Working with Grieving Parents in the NICU - Presentation on Docstoc

This lecture was prepared and given at the First Annual Perinatal Conference held by the March of Dimes Valley Division in Modesto California in November 2005.


Identifying, Understanding and Working with Grieving Parents in the NICU

I was one of the expert speakers present as a former NICU Parent and a Grief, Loss and Bereavement expert.

Todd Hochberg - Touching Souls with Bereavement Photography

As parents move through grief they also may struggle with holding on to memories and feelings about this short time with their baby, in the extreme some may wonder if their baby ever was.

Todd Hochberg

Bereavement Photography helps to ease the grief of losing a baby by documenting the presences of that child in their lives.

This video segment aired on the Chicago Tonight program on WTTW, PBS in Chicago showing how Todd Hochberg's stunning and intimate photographs help grieving families heal.



You can find out more about Bereavement Photography at the Squidoo Lens that I developed on the subject or by reading more of the posts on Bereavement Photography included on the NICU Parent Support Site.

• Creating Memories of a Dying Baby For Parents Through Photography
• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Bereavement Photography) on NBC's Today Show

More:
Dyer K. 2007-8. Bereavement Photography. Squidoo.com