CAMBRIDGE – About 5,000 premature babies in neonatal intensive care units at hospitals across Massachusetts will have outfits thanks to a mom who knows the NICU all too well.
Little baby Ava has been in the NICU at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge for a few weeks now and is just one of the recipients of The work of Meghan Block.
“I know exactly how I felt, and I felt like it was more for me than for the baby, more than for anyone else, it was for me,” Block told WBZ-TV.
“Caroline’s Closet”
Block, the CEO of Boston Moms, is discussing the birth of her daughter Caroline, who was born prematurely at South Shore Hospital in 2019 at 34 weeks, weighing just three pounds.
Like most families, Block and her husband were completely unprepared, without a single outfit that would fit their infant daughter, until a NICU nurse went above and beyond.
“I found out that the nurse who cared for her actually bought it with her own money. Seeing her in clothes really humanized her to me in some ways. It was really healing,” Block recalled.
That small act of kindness inspired Block to get started “Caroline’s closet”, an Amazon wishlist of preemie-sized dresses and rompers. Every year, Block calls on friends, family and the community to donate. This year marks a milestone with the delivery of 5,000 onesies to local NICUs.
“They take pictures and call grandmas to show them the outfit. Having a baby is joyful, and it should be, so it’s a little bit of joy we can inject into their day,” Mount Auburn told NICU nurse Caroline Merta to WBZ.
Nurse buys NICU baby costume
Before Caroline’s Closet, Merta said she and other nurses took it upon themselves to buy outfits for their patients.
“It’s a very caring relationship. We like to do the best we can for the families. This is just a huge help in making that happen,” Merta said.
The program is also expand to new hospitals. This year, families at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Medical Center, South Shore Hospital and Mount Auburn all have access to outfits.
“One of the challenges we face with clothes for babies is the small threads. It’s really difficult to dress them and find clothes that are adaptable for the monitoring we have here,” Merta explains.
Block knows this too, so she only brings rompers with snaps and double zippers. They are tiny pieces of fabric, but they make a big difference.
“I say every year, this is really healing for me. It’s so incredibly important to me to be able to bless other families in this way,” Block said with a smile.
You can view the Caroline’s Closet wishlist here.