Mission: To provide comprehensive navigation resources and support programs to parents of preemies, babies born with special health care needs and those who have experienced a loss due to these or other complications.
Results: This year, Hand to Hold has partnered with a wonderful corporation who will enable us to provide all hospitals who care for preemies access to our resources, database and peer mentor network, stretching our reach from a local level to a national level in a very short time!
Programs: Hand to hold social workers meet with families in the nicu to provide support and resources. They also provide sibing support and education.
nicu resource library & nicu graduation handbook:-------------------------------------------------the nicu resource library is a set of 25 educational handouts featuring topics of importance for nicu parents including information about feeding and nutrition, bonding with a medically fragile child and paying for a nicu stay in the hospital. The library is available in english and spanish. The nicu graduation handbook is a resource guide for nicu graduate parents focusing on the first year beyond hospital discharge.
helping hand peer support:--------------------------hand to hold family support navigators train and match nicu graduate parents with new nicu families in need of support. Parents are matched based on birth experience and matches are closely monitored by hand to hold staff.
As a parent of a micropreemie, I had not met many people who had gone through the same experience. Even years later, there were issues we were still dealing with and feelings from our time in the NICU that stayed with me. Hand to Hold was a wonderful resource. They contacted me immediately and stayed in contact constantly. They were able to match me with a mother who had gone through almost the exact same experience. Just having a person to talk to who could understand where I was coming from made all the difference in the world. I am sure I will use their website more in the future, but I really got everything I needed just from being matched up with this other family. It has been an extremely helpful experience.
This non-profit paired me with an invaluable mentor (for free!) and helped us navigate difficult diagnoses, tons of specialist appointments, hospital stays and insurance. Most importantly, Hand to Hold provided resources - lunch & learns, parent blog, informative newsletters and an interactive website - that I could go to anytime for reassurance and help.
This organization is filling a critical gap in our current health care system. NICU parents need support, information and ongoing education to ensure the best outcome for their baby and the entire family unit. Hand to Hold connects new parents with caring, trained, peer mentors who can offer support during and after a NICU stay. It is my hope that no parent will ever have to expereince a NICU stay without a Hand to Hold!
