GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — For some it's been months — for others it's been years — since families have been able to reunite with the nurses that treated their babies while in the NICU.
From baby's first breath to watching them grow, the Trinity Health NICU Reunion is a day of celebration.
Neonatal ICU Nurse Lynne Horodyski said, “They come back, not only to celebrate life but to celebrate their developmental milestones.” She added, “We really do develop a relationship, not only with the parents but with the babies, and really become an integral part of their, like, start to the world.”
I spoke with Jember Seebeck, a 30-year-old single mom of four. “It could be a really stressful experience," Seebeck said, "but if you have the right people in your village, then you can always make it.”
All four of Seebeck's babies were born prematurely. Eleven years later, she still comes back to the nurses that cared for her children since the beginning.
“We will never miss this," Seebeck said. "If our life depended on it, we would never miss this.”
Horodyski has played a pivotal part in this NICU reunion for the last 20 years.
“To know where the baby came from to then be able to see them a year later — or five years later or 15 years later — is so awesome to see that the care that we provided might have really helped facilitate their growth and development,” Horodyski said.
For each NICU Reunion, there's a new theme. Horodyski tells me this year, “I survived a wild ride, so a whole safari theme — and we are wild about the NICU.”
While some nurses may only see their patients for a 12-hour shift, Trinity Health nurses take care of these babies for up to three months.
“Being able to pray over the babies, or being able to pray with the moms, and really adding that to the care, I think, makes a huge difference,” Horodyski said.
So as these babies become toddlers, and these toddlers become teens, this day continues to be one for the nurses, the families and the babies.
Seebeck said, “This is the most special event that any parent can actually go through, because you know the people that took care of your baby in the most vulnerable time of your life, when your baby's hooked up to ventilators — you know these people got your baby's back.”
Next for Trinity Health is the Read-A-Thon — from Sept. 9 to 19 — where they will be competing against other NICUs throughout the country to see who can read the most books to the most babies.
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