As a nurse who works in the NICU, Sarah Grubbs saw a tragic need: there are no garments available for infants who do not survive. She vowed to help, and adapted simple designs to create beautiful yet practical burial gowns made from repurposed wedding dresses. Her group, NICU Helping Hands, provides these gowns free of charge to hospitals around the country, including Baylor All Saints Medical Center in Dallas.
Last year, a local woman who lost her daughter to miscarriage told her story in a WESH 2 CommUNITY Champion article. It prompted many people to donate their wedding dresses, and now the project is thriving. Hundreds of dresses have been transformed into small, handmade gowns for babies who never make it home from the hospital. In addition to the gowns, NICU Helping Hands also makes matching baby bonnets and sleeping bags.
When a mother is in the NICU, she often wants to take her baby home with her as soon as possible. But the gowns are not always in place, which can be difficult for a family to cope with. The NICU Helping Hands program was started to ease that burden by providing a special way for parents to say goodbye to their little one, and it has been a huge success.
The organization has grown to include volunteers from all over Central Florida and even beyond. Some, like Colleen Angel of Hot Springs Village, donate their unworn wedding dresses to the group. Others, like Edith Soholt of Casselberry, volunteered after her granddaughter lost her son at 18 weeks gestation. The NICU Helping Hands seamstresses are not all nurses or mothers, but they all share in the heartbreak of loss. They all take time out of their busy schedules to stitch, adding details like tiny bow ties and butterflies embroidered on the gowns. They also sew on antique buttons saved from their own mothers’ collections, and one seamstress even sews bells onto each piece—a reference to the ending scene in It’s A Wonderful Life, when Jimmy Stewart’s character Clarence rings a bell to let the angels know that his life had been saved.
All the volunteers agree: they want to give back to the community, and they all want to honor their own or a loved one’s experience with loss. Many have experienced miscarriages, and for some, the loss of a child brings back the pain of losing their own father. Several of the seamstresses have also had to care for children who have been born stillborn or preemies, and they all see their work as a way to honor those lives.
If you would like to donate a wedding dress, the group accepts ivory or white dresses in sizes from fitting the tiniest preemies to full-term babies. Currently, the nonprofit has about 300 gowns in stock. Those who need a gown can contact the organization directly to request it for their child or a loved one. They can also contact the group’s Facebook page to learn how to volunteer.