Beyond the NICU

Guest: Anissa Scholes

• Anissa discusses her pregnancy with Elisabeth and finding out she has Trisomy 18
• What is Trisomy 18, and what are the typical symptoms?
• What was it like at home for a baby with Trisomy 18?
• How grief is a singular experience
• Why it’s important to believe the griever
• Grieving a child when you have other children at home

Content Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics that may bring up emotions or take you back to some difficult memories. If at any time it becomes too much, please make sure to step away, take some deep breaths, go outside, or have some quiet time alone.

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Catherine discusses the experience of losing her first child and having a high-risk pregnancy with her second.
• She discusses her NICU experience and how that affected her emotionally.
• What are PPD symptoms? 
• How can you seek help if you realize you’re having these symptoms?
• How does a NICU stay make moms more susceptible to PPD?

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Rhiannon discusses her preeclampsia and how that led to the premature birth of her son
• She describes her NICU experience and how that led to her postpartum depression diagnosis
• How is someone diagnosed with postpartum depression?
• Rhiannon gives advice to NICU medical professionals how to speak to women who exhibit symptoms of postpartum depression

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Kathryn discusses her son Luke’s premature birth and diagnosis with NEC
• How Kathryn found her way to Hand to Hold
• Luke’s feeding journey and feeding therapy
• How to handle your preemie’s medical journey, when much of it is out of your control
• How Kathryn used her NICU journey to write her book, Live Big, Love Bigger

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

Guest: Keira Sorrells

• • Keira talks about her infertility issues and experience getting pregnant with quintuplets, then reducing the pregnancy to triplets
  • Keira talks about the birth of her daughters, Avery, Lily and Zoe, and her experience in the NICU
  • Keira discusses the journey grief after losing Zoe and still having Avery and Lily at home
  • How the loss of a child affects marriages differently
  • What led Keira to found the Zoe Rose Foundation
  • How grief changes over time and how to process that change
  • What is the difference between shame and guilt?

Content Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics that may bring up emotions or take you back to some difficult memories. If at any time it becomes too much, please make sure to step away, take some deep breaths, go outside, or have some quiet time alone.

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Lee discusses her diagnosis of PPROM and the premature birth of two of her daughters.
• How she handled bringing home NICU babies with other children at home
• Intentional motherhood
• The importance of reading, especially to preemies
• How to set a routine that works for your family
• A note on breastfeeding

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Shifra describes her own experience with postpartum depression
• She discusses how this experience led her to begin Eim Leah
• What Eim Leah does to support new moms
• The importance of self-care for new moms
• Self-care techniques

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Why Becca decided to specialize in grief and loss in her career as a counselor
• Why is processing the pain of grief so difficult?
• The difference between depression and grief
• What can couples do in order to move through the grief process together?
• How can parents help their children process grief?
• How can we memorialize those we have lost?
• How to deal with the guilt associated with grief

Content Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics that may bring up emotions or take you back to some difficult memories. If at any time it becomes too much, please make sure to step away, take some deep breaths, go outside, or have some quiet time alone.

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

• Mia discusses her own NICU experience
• The emotions surrounding going back to work
• How to be transparent at work and in the NICU
• Importance of practicing self-care
• How the NICU trains you to be an advocate and leader

After we recorded this interview, we received news that Mia’s daughter lost her battle with congestive heart failure and passed away at just two years, seven months. Mia’s family has set up an endowment fund in their daughter’s name to support research at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California. Click here to visit the endowment fund.

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold

Guest: Dawn Yu Renwick, NICU Nurse, Author/ Illustrator of "Dog Coats

• What are the benefits of reading aloud in the NICU for your baby?
• How does reading aloud to your baby in the NICU benefit you as a parent?
• As a NICU parent, how do I overcome the intimidation of reading aloud in the NICU?
• Purchase your copy of Dog Coats on Amazon here.
• More information about read-aloud in NICUs at babieswithbooks.org

Hand to Hold® is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parents with personalized emotional support, educational resources and community before, during and after their baby’s NICU stay. NICU support is available at no cost to NICU parents in English & Spanish.

Learn more or get support at handtohold.org

Follow Hand to Hold: 

facebook.com/HANDtoHOLD

Instagram: @handtohold

Twitter: @NICUHandtoHold