When a family loses a baby, whether it be in the womb or shortly after birth, it is one of the most devastating experiences they will ever have to endure. Oftentimes, the loss is sudden and completely unexpected. This heartbreak creates an internal poverty that leaves them feeling suffocated and hopeless. NICU Helping Hands has found a way to provide some comfort to families with the gift of beautiful infant burial gowns called angel gowns. These are made from wedding dresses and are offered to hospitals, birthing centers, funeral homes, and directly to families in need of a final dress for their precious angels.
A few years ago, Hillary Grubbs, a neonatologist at Baylor All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, started her own nonprofit organization to provide the gowns for bereaved parents. Grubbs’ effort was fueled by the desire to give back after her own experiences with miscarriages and stillbirths. In just a few months, she and a handful of volunteer seamstresses have repurposed more than 2,500 wedding dresses to create the angel gowns.
The dresses are not only a source of solace to the grieving families, but they also serve as a reminder that their babies were loved and will always be remembered. Grubbs and her team work tirelessly to ensure the gowns are distributed as widely as possible to hospitals, birthing centers, and funeral homes all across the country. Each wedding dress yields between 12 and 20 angel gowns.
In the US alone, 1 in 4 women experience a loss during pregnancy or soon after, and that’s why it is so important for people to donate their wedding dresses to the Angel Gowns Project. The process is simple and easy: Step 1: Donate your dress online. Step 2: Receive an email with instructions on how to package and ship your dress along with a short information sheet. Step 3: Your dress is safely shipped to your amazing seamstress in Guatemala or the United States where it is repurposed into an angel gown. Step 4: Your beautiful gown is then delivered to hospitals, birthing centers, funeral homes and directly to grieving families – free of charge.
At UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, California, the tiniest patients and their families are cared for by a team of dedicated professionals who are committed to providing the highest quality of care. Offering the latest advances in pediatric sub-specialties, innovative therapies, and specialized emotional support, the hospital strives to deliver compassionate, family-centered care to each child and their family.
In partnership with Angel Gowns of South Bay, NICU Helping Hands is pleased to be able to offer these beautiful angel gowns to our tiniest patients and their families. Pictured above are Liberty, Manager of Labor & Delivery and Silvia Noriega from Angel Gowns of South Bay making their first delivery of these lovely gowns to our NICU families.