Montclair Baptist Medical Center nurses lead program to support parents of premature babies

It has been said that big things come in small packages. God demonstrated this Himself when Baby Jesus came into the world. Through a small baby, God presented the Savior of the world.
   
Recently, two women experienced the enormity of God’s grace through the tiniest of babies.
   
That touch of grace in the lives of two nurses at Montclair Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham transformed their nursing skills into a ministry for parents of premature babies.
   
The journey that led to Touch of Grace (TOG) — an organization for support, mentoring and financial assistance — began for Penny Wright and Robin Martin when they each accepted Jesus while caring for premature babies. 
   
Wright experienced spiritual rebirth while caring for twin patients at the hospital; Martin accepted Christ after the birth of her own premature child.
   
“I wrote a poem (“Angel Baby”) after the first of premature twins I was caring for died,” Wright said.
Part of her poem reads, “ ‘Angel baby’s tiny perfect spirit took hold of Jesus’ hand. And as he left his baby body, God gave me peace of mind. He left me with a sense of duty and a purpose to my days.’
   
“I shared the experience with coworkers and I ended up setting up a fund — Touch of Grace — with the Baptist Health Foundation. That was almost four years ago,” said Wright.
   
She felt the fund was a necessary beginning because, often, premature babies born outside of the Birmingham area are brought to Montclair for care. 
   
As a result, the parents face expenses beyond heath care dollars. Lodging, food and travel expenses can be needed for several months. 
   
In the circumstance that led Wright to this ministry, the parents of the twins could not get to the hospital in time as the smaller of the two — weighing 1 pound at birth — lay dying at about 1-month of age. So Wright held him and loved him in her arms. 
  
“I felt God wanted to use that experience and poem. Step by step, (TOG) has grown from that,” she said. What Wright realized from the experience led her to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, she said.
   
Martin said she was on an “emotional roller coaster” when her own child was born May 28, 2001, after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
   
A baby is considered by the medical profession to be premature if it is delivered two or more weeks before the due date, explained Martin. Few babies born prior to 29 weeks of gestation survive. 
   
Martin, a nurse currently working in the open heart progressive unit at Montclair, recalled how she was holding her 3-day-old daughter, Rylea, when the physician walked in and said, “I’m sorry, but I think you should be getting ready for a funeral.”
   
A hemorrhaging in the baby’s brain didn’t appear to be stopping, Martin said. 
   
“There was no hope,” she said. “It came to the point where everything was out of control. There could be only one Person in control — the Lord.
   
“When I was a little girl I ‘prayed’ for trite things, like a scooter,” said Martin. “But now, I was praying for the very life of my own child.”
   
“I gave (Rylea) and myself to the Lord that day — I accepted Jesus just three days after my daughter’s birth,” she said. God heard Martin’s passionate cry and worked a miracle not only in her life, but also in her daughter’s. 
   
Rylea was hospitalized in Montclair’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for more than four months, surviving several surgeries. Today, according to Martin, 3-year-old Rylea is “vibrant, healthy and full of life.”
   
“My goal is to take my experience and help other people — to encourage them and answer their questions,” Martin said.
   
Having felt alone especially in the early days of the ordeal, Martin had searched for other people who had been through such a crisis. She could not find support groups for parents of premature babies in the Birmingham area.
   
Mentors and support groups are vital, said the two nurses, because the stressors on parents – which sometimes may lead to job loss or divorce — can be devastating. 
   
Martin said the emotional rigors on mothers of premature babies can leave them feeling guilty because the baby came too soon or because the little one dies. A mother can feel robbed of the emotional bonding of taking the pregnancy to term.
   
Martin said she is blessed with a strong marriage. However, sometimes, a husband is not able to understand the emotional tempest his wife is experiencing because of a  pre-term delivery.
   
In addition to these deep emotional concerns, “many parents are separated from their babies due to the complexity of care and long-distance travel,” Wright noted.
   
To help with these and many other matters, TOG helps to provide the financial, emotional and spiritual support needed. 
   
The program currently helps parents of premature babies transferred from hospitals in Sylacauga, Cullman and Gadsden, Wright said. 
   
Support groups, mentoring arrangements and prayer groups are offered to parents of premature babies, regardless of whether the little ones are hospitalized at Montclair, Wright noted.
   
Usually, nurses assess the parents’ situations and make contact with mentor parents, who are prepared to assist. 
   
“(The parents) are in a crisis mode in the beginning,” Wright continued. So mentor parents share with them, offering emotional and spiritual support.
   
“New parents are simply overwhelmed, so just being there to listen (to them) is so important,” she said. “Later, more technical, medical information is shared.”
   
She said many nurses, physicians and chaplains at Montclair play pivotal roles in assisting with the support groups.  
   
“We all work together to provide as much support as we can,” Wright said. The vision, she continued, is to expand the support groups to other locations in central Alabama.
   
“We are currently working with Citizens Baptist Medical Center in Talladega and Shelby Baptist Medical Center at Alabaster to get this going in those locations.”