Every family deserves the opportunity to keep their stillborn children comfortably in their room with them. Help us and Stories of Babies Born Still (S.O.B.B.S.) to give a Caring Cradle to Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, Illinois for families facing the loss of a precious infant near their birth.

    My husband John and I, Hannah, checked into the hospital just shy of 27 weeks of pregnancy after I noted several symptoms of severe preeclampsia, had failed to get my baby to move, and had been unable to find his heartbeat with a fetal stethoscope like I had the previous afternoon. At the hospital it was confirmed that our baby had passed away. We needed to induce labor to begin to cure my preeclampsia.

    Benjamin Gabriel was born sleeping at 8:12 am on May 1, 2018. He weighed 1 lb 9 oz and measured 12 inches long. He had five fingers with a little buddy finger on his right hand, six perfect little fingers on his left hand, and ten perfect little toes on two tiny feet that looked just like mine in micro-miniature. Benjamin was a very special soul with a special little body in that he had Trisomy 13, or three copies of chromosome 13 in every cell of his body. It is the rarest of the trisomy disorders. Its occurrence in Benjamin's case is even rarer in that it happened with parents as young as we are, and it is more rare still that he grew and kicked almost to one week short of the third trimester of pregnancy.

    We were fortunate enough to deliver Benjamin at a hospital that has a special bassinet, like the Caring Cradle, with a cooling device that makes it possible for stillborn babies to room-in with their families. Being able to keep Benjamin in the room with us allowed us time to say hello before we had to say goodbye so soon. My husband and I were able to sing to him, talk to him, rock him, take pictures, and hold him for as long as we wanted, as often as we wanted. Our daughter got to meet her baby brother outside of mommy's tummy. Our family and friends had time to meet him before his little body started to change too much. John and I had time with our baby, and we would like to honor Benjamin's memory by giving that gift to other families who find themselves having to move through such a terrible loss of their own.

    Our hospital's cooling device was donated through the charity Stories of Babies Born Still a few years ago. We want to help S.O.B.B.S. place a Caring Cradle at Presence Mercy Medical Center to provide the same chance for families like ours. Please help us raise $6,000 to give one Caring Cradle to the families at Mercy. Your donation will become a gift of precious time to families at Mercy whose children are stillborn.

To learn more about the Caring Cradle, please visit https://caringcradle.com/
More information about S.O.B.B.S. and the work they do can be found here:                            http://www.storiesofbabiesbornstill.org

With love and gratitude in Benjamin's memory,

John and Hannah Cartozian