I don’t often blog my NICU volunteer sessions (maybe I should?), but I wanted to share these from earlier this week! Every month or so, I head into the NICU at Saint Luke’s Hospital on the Plaza and photograph 8-10 babies and their families, completely free of charge. My lovely friend works there for the March of Dimes and coordinates the schedule for me (and several other photographers that also volunteer their time).
When holidays roll around, the NICU and March of Dimes like to do what they can to make the holiday special for these families that don’t yet have their baby (or babies) at home. My husband and I never experienced a holiday in the NICU (unless you count Labor Day, and I don’t), but the every day was hard enough, so I can imagine how much harder a holiday would be. You may have seen our work around Halloween, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day when the photos of cute babies dressed as super heroes, gifts, and wearing handmade hats went viral!
For Mother’s Day we made it all about Kangaroo Care, which is super important to preemies! Kangaroo Care is skin to skin contact, and in addition to being an amazing way for parent and baby to bond, it also eases discomfort and stress, reduces risk of infection, helps brain development, stabilizes heart rate, and so much more (plus amazing benefits for parents)!
In addition to the photo aspect this time, the moms were all gifted sweet little foot print keepsakes, the book The Magic of Motherhood donated by Harper Collins, and delicious cupcakes donated by Cupcake A La Mode.
I was lucky enough to capture two sets of twins this week!
The team that day! That’s me on the left, without a camera, because my camera was used to take the picture 😉
