ICU BABY INC
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : n*****e@i*****y.o*g
Mission Statement
ICU baby is a non-profit organization that offers NICU families emotional, financial and informational support so that babies and families can thrive together.
About This Cause
ICU baby's mission is to support families with a premature or critically ill baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). ICU baby's projects are directed to eliminate the financial and emotional barriers that prevent families from being with their baby in the hospital and to improve each family's NICU experience while they are there. ICU baby supports NICU families at Holtz Children's Hospital at UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and Baptist Health System's South Miami Hospital. ICU baby is the only organization in South Florida to support NICU families. ICU baby Believes that... * Babies should not be alone…No baby should go unvisited by his family because of financial or emotional barriers. * Babies should not be alone…The NICU should be a family centered, nurturing environment that provides for the particular needs of the whole family. * Babies should not be alone…Every family with a baby receiving palliative care in the NICU should have a private room and timely access to their baby with limited interruption before their baby passes. ICU baby has 5 programs in the hospitals it serves. The NICU Pack Program/Parent-to-Parent Support provides families whose babies will be in the NICU 3 weeks or more, with a tote bag filled with essential items to take care of their baby while in the hospital. The Pack includes a cooler for the transport of breast milk to the hospital, a NICU specific journal for parents to record their baby’s daily progress; laundry bags for the hygienic transport of the baby’s clothes; a baby carrier to be used for skin-to-skin care in-hospital and as a baby carrier at home; a swaddle blanket to help calm the baby and promote healthy sleeping practices; a water bottle to encourage breast milk production; a list of commonly used medical terms, among other things. The Packs are delivered every Wednesday to parents in the NICU by an ICU baby volunteer with NICU experience. ICU baby's team of volunteers go bedside-to-bedside to provide the individual support that so many NICU families do not have, but so desperately need. ICU baby’s 2nd program, Supper of Support are monthly catered dinners that are free to all families with a baby admitted and are held in a conference room in close proximity to the NICU. The Suppers give families the opportunity to meet other NICU families that can directly relate to what they are going through, often organically creating a support group dialogue led by the NICU parents themselves. ICU baby’s Transportation Assistance Program offers a stipend to offset transportation costs for low income families whose visits to the NICU are restricted because of financial hardship. Bus passes, gas cards, parking vouchers or Uber rides are provided with the goal of increasing families’ ability to visit their baby in the NICU and engaging parents’ participation in their baby’s NICU care. To date, ICU baby has paid for the transportation costs of over 200 low income families for the months of their baby’s stay so that they could be at their baby’s bedside in the NICU. ICU baby's Bereavement Program offers NICU families a gift in memory of their baby and much needed support during this extremely difficult and painful journey. ICU baby connects the baby’s parents with a volunteer that has suffered a similar loss and understands the parents’ emotions. The 5th program is ICU Read. Volunteers visit the NICU every week and read story books to the babies who are not visited often. Research shows that early reading leads to improved language development in babies. ICU baby’s programs benefit all families with a baby in the NICU regardless of financial well being. The sole exception is the Transportation Assistance Program that is targeted to help low income families with home-to-hospital travel costs. ICU baby is a volunteer based organization and relies on it's volunteers to carry out it's programs.