In the United States, each year more than 626,000 babies are born through still birth or miscarriage. That means there is a baby every minute that does not get to go home with their parents. In response, an Ohio woman has devoted her time to making beautiful gowns from donated wedding dresses for those little lives.
Known as angel gowns, these tiny handmade dresses bring dignity to the life that was never started. They are gifted to grieving families free of charge and they are offered in hospitals, birthing centers and funeral homes across the country. The gowns are stitched together from beautiful wedding dresses that once represented the hope and happiness of a new marriage.
A few months ago, a Mayo Clinic nurse posted a link on Facebook. It was a Huffington Post article about an organization in Texas that makes angel gowns. Its mission is to ensure no parent ever has to sift through the hospital lost and found tub looking for burial clothes for their baby.
The NICU Helping Hands nonprofit group is one of the first to offer these gowns nationally. Its volunteer seamstresses lovingly transform dresses from the tiniest preemie to full-term infants into the gowns. They are then delivered to families who will use them for final pictures or dressing their baby for burial.
It is a small but profoundly meaningful endeavor that has made an impact on countless families. And, it is a project that has a personal connection for many of the volunteers including Lynn Gaber, a cardiovascular surgery intensive care unit nurse at Mayo Clinic.
She became involved with the group after reading the article and recognizing that it was close to her heart. She had five miscarriages in 18 months and felt the need to give back to other women who experienced the same pain.
Gaber, who is in her second retirement as a labor and delivery nurse, has created a closet at her house filled with materials to make the gowns. The gowns are made in a variety of sizes for boys and girls and are accompanied by a message and a keepsake angel. She said the response from hospitals has been tremendous.
“It’s hard to believe that so much love can be given to a little one,” she said. “There is no greater gift than to give a family something that will bring them comfort in their loss.”
In addition to the angel gowns, the NICU Helping Hands group also provides memory blankets and hats for newborns who pass away. It is a national organization with more than 50 chapters and a chapter in northwest Ohio, which includes Cincinnati Children’s.
Anyone who would like to donate a dress or make a financial contribution can do so at the NICU Helping Hands website. Donors can follow their dress’ journey to a developing country (Guatemala is currently the country they send dresses to), virtually meet the seamstress who sews it and more.