2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 22
Matt
Warrior. Dad. Giver.
Matt’s daughter Emma was born six weeks early at a
little over three pounds. After delivery, his wife’s blood
pressure spiked and Emma was rushed to the NICU,
where she stayed for 20 days. Suffering from postpartum pre-eclampsia—and requiring her own lifesaving treatments—his wife wasn’t able to see Emma
for eight days.
fragile babies … just like our daughter was. It’s such a
joy knowing I’m helping those services—just like we
received—to happen.”
“It’s very different to see your newborn in the NICU—
connected to a feeding tube, a breathing tube and the
incubator,” Matt said. “And then having to leave her at
the end of each day.”
“Families don’t always know how to take care of such
small, fragile babies. It’s scary enough taking care of
an eight-pound baby but to take care of a baby that
is three pounds when you bring them home, that’s
stressful on a family. They don’t know if they can carry
a baby a certain way or how much to feed a baby.”
After 20 days, Emma gained enough weight and
strength to go home. She had no major complications;
she was just small and needed to grow more.
“When we brought her home, she was still so fragile,”
Matt says. “We had no idea how to take care of this
small, fragile, premature baby.”
The largest part of the population they serve is
medically fragile babies—babies who are premature or
have spent time in the NICU.
Nurses for Newborns also serves mothers struggling
with medical issues, poverty, mental illness or
substance abuse.
“Sometimes we even start seeing moms before the
baby is born,” Matt says.
They were connected to Nurses for Newborns, a United
Way partner agency, that sent a nurse to visit Matt and
his wife in their home each week to support them as
they learned to care for their new baby.
There are no economic or income requirements to
receive services at Nurses for Newborns. Their support
is available to anyone who needs it.
“Nurses for Newborns … I really attribute to our
daughter doing as well as she’s doing today,” Matt
says. “For the first year of her life, a nurse would come
do the growth and medical assessments and make
sure she was hitting her milestones. It was important
knowing we could call her any time with any question.
As new parents, that was such a comfort to us.”
“When Emma was born, we felt like we probably would
have been fine. We told ourselves that we had money
to go to the doctor; we had good medical care,” Matt
says. “But for someone to say, ‘An organization will
send a registered nurse to your home to help you and
teach you to take care of this little baby,’ and for us to
be able to say yes to that … was such a blessing.”
A few years later, Matt joined the staff at Nurses—to
share his story with the community and encourage
others to support their work.
Emma turned six in November 2020. Matt says she’s a
social bug who loves playing soccer, anything pink and
purple and wants to be a vet when she grows up.
“It was a fun adventure because of the background
and connection we had. I felt I wasn’t just doing a
job but something that I knew helped people. I was
helping nurses go in the homes of those medically
“She’s our little miracle baby,” Matt says. “My wife and I
say that we lived life backwards. We had her late in life,
late in married life. She’s our little miracle and she just
brings so much joy.”
Nurses for Newborns
