{"id":96813,"date":"2016-06-30T15:26:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=96813"},"modified":"2016-06-30T15:26:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:26:59","slug":"volunteers-who-hold-premature-babies-are-making-a-big-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/volunteers-who-hold-premature-babies-are-making-a-big-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers who hold premature babies are making a big difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You can’t spoil a baby. All they want from you is love and care, and when they don’t get it, it can lead to a lifetime of trouble with bonding and healthy relationships. That’s one of the reasons why volunteers who hold premature babies\u00a0are so vital in hospitals.<\/p>\n

Babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are likely there for an extended period of time. When parents can’t be there because of work or other children they need to care for, these infants could end up suffering, if it weren’t for some very important volunteers.<\/p>\n

Carol Ann Lombardi is one of these volunteers, and she was recently featured in The Columbus Dispatch<\/a> for her efforts. \u00a0For 11\u00a0years, Lombardi has volunteered in the NICU singing to the babies, rocking them, and reciting nursery rhymes to them. \u00a0These babies are often tiny, having been born prematurely. They may\u00a0be hooked up to various wires, or are\u00a0recovering from surgery. \u00a0Lombardi spends three hours with them, sometimes holding up to 10 babies during that time.<\/p>\n

“One day, I held exactly two,” she told The Columbus Dispatch. “I held one for two hours. When I tried to set her down, she cried – so I just held her. She needed sleep.”<\/p>\n

In Mesa, Arizona, Mary Ann Niewald also volunteers with premature\u00a0babies.<\/p>\n

“It changes my whole life, holding these babies,” she told The Arizona Republic.<\/a> “It has changed my outlook. Loving these babies fills my whole world with love.”<\/p>\n

Another volunteer, Lou Ann Curry, visits the NICU at Baylor in Dallas. She had a son and a grandson in the NICU so she understands what it’s like to have to leave a child\u00a0there.<\/p>\n