More ABC US news | ABC Health News
Cuddling Babies: Hospital Volunteers Show the Power of Human
Touch
The neonatal
intensive care unit is full of buzzers, bells and the steady hum of technology.
The machines that line the rooms are safeguarding the most fragile human
lives. Lives like baby Oliver and his twin sister, Skye, who were born
three months premature.
How reassuring,
then, is the sound of a friendly voice? The look of a friendly face? Babies in
the neonatal intensive care unit cling to moments like that, but sometimes
parents and nurses can’t be there to offer the constant reassurance.
That’s where
Pat Rice comes in. He is a volunteer “cuddler”
at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.
He and his
wife, Claire Fitzgerald, have been cuddling babies there for 16 years,
including Oliver and Skye. His deep voice helps soothe the babies. He joked
someone once told him it sounded like a tuba.
“Apparently
the voice helps make a difference. I don’t know why,” said Rice. “But I find
that it works pretty well.”
The nurses
said that the cuddles have an immediate impact for these infants. It can even
be measured. Their blood oxygenation starts to climb, meaning the baby is
relaxed and is breathing deeper.
The doctors
say cuddling leads to better tolerance of pain, more stable body temperature
and even stronger vital signs.
Asked
whether he believes that a hug sometimes can be the best medicine, Dr. Ronald
Cohen, the medical director of the intermediate care nursery at Lucile Packard
Children’s Hospital, said: “Absolutely.”
“You know these people are scared to
death,” Fitzgerald told ABC News.
Fitzgerald
and Rice said they often comfort parents whose babies are admitted to the NICU
because they can share stories about all the babies they have cuddled who are
now home and thriving.
Most of the
babies at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital make it thanks to intensive
medical intervention and the miracle of the human touch.
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