A word from Alexandra's House

Just wanted to share some words by Kathy of Alexandra's House. (Tissue alert, if this doesn't tug at your heart strings you need to have your hearts checked, LOL!)

In response to why our scrapbook pages and albums are needed:
"Our families have chosen to honor their babies by giving them birth and in most cases, death. Most importantly, they see them as life...a life created by God and one that existed. Photographs are so important and journals to validate the existence of this baby as their child, grandchild, brother, sister, nephew, niece. A picture, a lock of hair, a special momento to cherish as a rememberance of this special blessing in their lives. Your scrapbooking pages will hold these memories. These are the books that one sits down to treasure the moments and memories in the quiet. It is a gift of the present, past, and yes,future. "

Kathy also shared this information from http://www.aaplog.org/perinatalhospice.htm This will help explain what Alexandra's House does for the families.

"Perinatal hospice extends the concept of hospice to include comprehensive support from the time of diagnosis through the birth and death of the infant, and into the postpartum period. The availability of perinatal hospice provides a viable management alternative to those families for whom elective pregnancy termination is not a desirable option.
Method of delivery is based on obstetrical indications with the exception that a cesarean delivery is generally not done for a fetal status that is not fully reassuring, since intervention for this finding will not change the outcome for the baby and places the mother at increased risk for a complication. At birth, the attending neonatologist evaluates the infant, confirms the diagnosis, and places the infant with the parents so they can share in their baby’s life and death.
Parents are allowed to stay with the child as long as they wish. They are encouraged to dress the baby, take photographs of the baby and hold the baby. All family members are encouraged to participate, including children when appropriate. All involvement is by parental choice, and they are only involved to their level of comfort. Each family receives a special remembrance decorative gift box as a keepsake and repository for birth items.
Comfort measures are emphasized to the family, with staff assisting in this care as needed. The infants are kept warm and cuddled and some even fed. Infants surviving for longer periods are occasionally cared for in the nursery during the postpartum period, if the parents desire. Chaplain and social services provided spiritual and emotional support during this time as needed. Care is continued into the post-partum period by those providing grief support and contact from various members of the hospice team, with the level and timing of involvement dictated by the desires of the parents.
The care of these patients has been accomplished without any notable maternal complications, and the response of parents to this philosophy of care has been overwhelmingly positive. When parents are given loving support, freedom from the fear of abandonment and careful counsel regarding clinical expectations in the setting of a lethal fetal condition, they frequently choose the option of perinatal hospice care for the management of their pregnancy. This can be safely accomplished with current methods of obstetrical care. These parents are thus allowed to fully experience the birth of their child and the bonding that occurs during the antepartum and immediate postpartum period. This bonding helps provide a firm foundation for obtaining closure with the death of their child. They may rest secure in the knowledge that they shared in their baby’s life, however brief, and treated their child with the same dignity afforded other terminally ill individuals under the best of circumstances.

You may read further at the website listed above. Now, let's help these families and get those pages made!!!