NICU families at Riley hospital receive gifts from nurses

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Parents and babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Riley Hospital for Children received special handmade gifts for Christmas.

“The hospital is a terrible place to be during the holidays,” Brittany Gummere, the NICU family support coordinator at Riley Maternity Tower, said.

Gummere says she helped make the gifts because she’s been a parent in the NICU before.

“My daughter spent 10 weeks in the NICU. I always joke with the parents that I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt and we’re all a part of club that we didn’t ask to be in,” she said.

Gummere and a few other staff members came up with the idea to gift each baby with a personalized ornament of their footprint. 

“Inside the ornament is a ribbon that is exactly as long as they were when they were born,” she said.

It’s a gift Gummere can give knowing personally how it feels to spend a holiday in the hospital.

“To be able to give back to families to let them know that they are not so alone and to help them feel a little bit of joy in a not very joyous environment stitches up any sort of hole that may have been left in our own experience,” she said.