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Warming hearts Friday, January 9, 2015
Women’s club project brings comfort to newborns By ERICA SCHMITT STAFF WRITER
NEWINGTON — Delivering relief to mothers whose newborns are fighting to live is what members of the GFWC Newington/ Wethersfield Women’s Club do best. When the opportunity to expand their giving presented itself last year, the ladies were quick to jump in. Since 2006, the club’s 40 members have created over 1,000 handmade blankets to soothe babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Hartford Hospital. Registered Nurse Milena Volume 55, No. 2
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Frazer has always facilitated blanket deliveries, then fellow RN Jennifer Gerich proposed a new project to members last spring. She received grant money to start the Heart to Heart program, which provides mothers and babies with identical flannel hearts they switch between each other to strengthen their bond. “Infants are very often transferred from other NICUs to Hartford’s because they can handle more situations, and nurses were noticing babies from UConn had pink or blue flannel hearts on them,” remembered Edyie Steimer, the club member who has led the blanket program since its inception. “It was found it really fostered a bonding between the mothers and these teeny tiny babies,” added Steimer, a Newington resident. See HEART, Page 7
From left, GFWC Newington/Wethersfield Woman’s Club members Rosemarie Capuano and Edyie Steimer with Milena Frazer, RN, of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. The club has donated 1,075 blankets to the center since 2006.