BABY LOVE

How an army of volunteers is helping to heal sick babies— one cuddle at a time.

TEXT LISA VAN DE GEYN

THERE’S A QUIET hum of activity inside Southlake Regional Health Centre’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Nurses speak in hushed voices as they check Isolettes (self-controlled incubators) that house the hospital’s tiniest, most delicate patients— babies too sick, too weak and too small to go home. The soft glow from the Isolettes bounces through the unit, which is kept warm, peaceful and dimly lit—it’s purposely womb-like and puts newborns at ease.

Connor and Kyle are two-week-old twins. Their mother, Krissy, has tucked the boys into her shirt; they look like little joeys, heads poking out of her tank top. Lying on Mom’s chest, the babies, born at 32 weeks, instinctively sidle up to each other. Kyle, who’s more alert than docile Connor, puts his tiny arm around his brother as they settle in for skin-to-skin time.

The boys, now free of the masks and wires that helped them breathe, are a lucky pair. Krissy, a mom of four, has help at home with her two toddlers, allowing her to be at the Newmarket, Ont.–based hospital so she can feed and hold her sons, giving them the snuggling all babies instinctually crave and need to thrive. But there are times when neither she nor her husband can make it to the NICU. That’s when Krissy— like other parents who can’t be with their babies— relies on a small team of carefully selected, highly trained volunteers to cuddle her boys. “It’s a huge consolation for a parent to know that if you can’t be there to hold your baby, someone else is there to do

“Babies need to be held—not only to reduce stress, stabilize heart rates and reduce pain but also to support their brain development,” says Sandra Payne, Southlake’s nurse educator for NICU and pediatrics.

Five years ago, Payne, who’s been a nurse for almost 20 years, got a call from a colleague in the

“Babies need to be held—not only to reduce stress, stabilize heart rates and reduce pain but also to support their brain development.”

NICU asking her to come hug a fussy wee one whose parents were not at the hospital. Payne began jumping in to baby-snuggle but soon realized she needed help to give these infants the attention they needed.

her team: Aren’t there volunteers who’d be interested in comforting babies whose parents can’t be at the hospital 24-7? Payne and her team’s brilliant idea sparked the creation of a volunteer cuddle program that’s gaining in popularity in hospitals across Canada.

approach: It makes sure babies are given much-needed hugs and snuggle time by volunteers when moms and dads aren’t near.

Payne decided to become a nurse after her father was diagnosed with cancer. “His nurse-practitioner taught me how to do his injections at

LEFT A volunteer snuggles a premature baby at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ont. BELOW Two-week-old preemies nuzzle up to Mom, who’s comforted to know that volunteer cuddlers will step in when she’s home caring for her other kids. asked to be placed in the intensive care

disappointed when they put me in the

I knew it was where I wanted to be

Cuddle program founder Sandra Payne, a nurse educator for NICU and pediatrics at Southlake.

resuscitation program.

Payne was the lead in determining the qualities

she developed the volunteer training program. As a

ally strong individuals with a thick skin—the NICU isn’t always an easy place to be.

Having worked with the Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres to share guidelines with hospitals interested in implementing their own cuddle

to-skin contact increases the development of essential

Being held skin to skin can also remarkably reduce pain during procedures—babies cry less and appear ing their heartbeats and breathing patterns. “Being