Parents’ Crafts Workshop helps ease stress and long hours in NICU

Handcrafted items become cherished mementos of infants’ JGH care

No sooner had Nataliia Sobol entered the Parents’ Crafts Workshop in the JGH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) than she hit on the perfect idea for a souvenir to make for her month-old son.

At the centre of a large piece of patterned craft paper, she placed a small photo of her baby. Then she added various decorative details, including brightly coloured stickers of a kangaroo, a giraffe and a mouse.

At the Parents’ Crafts Workshop, Stephanie Treherne (left, front) provides companionship and guidance to new mothers (clockwise from left, rear) Eri Patricia Som, Sushmitha, Nataliia Sobol and Samantha Kalumba. (Click on this photo to enlarge it.)

The kangaroo, Ms. Sobol said, represented skin-to-skin contact, known as kangaroo care, which the NICU encourages between parent and infant. The giraffe symbolized a giraffe warmer, a device that provides gentle, radiant heat to nurture newborns in their incubators.

And the mouse? That was a bit more personal, she told the other three mothers and Nurse Clinician Stephanie Treherne.

“I’ve been calling my baby Mouse, because he’s so small,” she explained with a smile, eliciting chuckles around the table. “Also,” she continued a little sheepishly, “he’s been making squeaking sounds.”

With that, everyone burst into warm-hearted laughter.

Ms. Treherne couldn’t have been more pleased. In founding the Parents’ Crafts Workshop, her aim was to create a happy and supportive space—removed from incubators and digital monitors—where mothers (who are no longer hospitalized) can take a much-needed break from the worry and tedium that are woven into the fabric of neonatal intensive care.

And now, here were four mothers at a session in May, enjoying a comfortable, casual conversation, their attention focused on handiwork that would become mementos of their families’ experience in the NICU.

Creating a positive memory of the NICU

“Everyone on staff is as supportive as possible,” Ms. Treherne says, “but the mothers spend so many hours in the NICU that it can be an isolating experience.

“Their family isn’t there in the middle of the day and their friends can’t visit every day. The only ones in a similar position are the other mothers, but the opportunities for them to meet are limited.

“Each baby is undergoing something different, but the mothers have a lot in common. They’re all in a similar environment and their babies are being taken care of by the same staff.

“That’s why I thought of bringing them together at a crafts table. They’re under no pressure to talk to one another or to me, but if they want to, the option is there. No matter what they choose to do, the crafts are a welcome distraction and a nice way to create a positive memory of the NICU.”

Launched in February, the monthly sessions— each running for about 90 minutes around midday—are held in a quiet area of the NICU where spare equipment is kept.

Ms. Treherne and her colleagues have spread the word about the workshop, never knowing who, if anyone, will show up. But so far, she says, there’s been no shortage of interested moms. “Even if only one mother comes by and has a pleasant time, that to me is a success.”

Fathers are also welcome, but by May, none had attended the workshop. Ms. Treherne says many of them wait for the baby to come home before taking paternity leave from work. In other instances, dad is home looking after the other children, while mom is at the hospital. Some of the moms are also single mothers.

The session in May proved to be a much-needed respite for Eri Patricia Som, whose daughter had been in the NICU since February. Born at just 1,040 grams (2¼ pounds), she had gradually managed to gain weight, climbing to more than three kilos (6½ pounds).

“It feels so good to do something except worry,” Ms. Som said. “I love her so much, but sometimes you just have to change your surroundings.”

“When your baby is sleeping, there isn’t much to do,” agreed Ms. Sobol, whose son had been in the NICU since early April. “When he’s older, he’s not going to remember being here, so I’m creating something to show him my memories.”

Commemorating the infant’s milestones

If a mother is unsure what to make, Ms. Treherne suggests what she calls a milestone card or celebration card. “For instance, if a baby is born under 1,000 grams, we can celebrate reaching and crossing that threshold.

“We also celebrate reaching the age of one month. Or a change in respiratory support. Or the first feeding at mom’s breast. Or the first full feeding taken by mouth. There are a million things to celebrate if you take the time to look for them.”

In 2021, Stephanie Treherne received a Caring Beyond award from the JGH Humanization of Care Committee for sewing little superhero capes—each emblazoned with the first letter of a baby’s name—for newborns who were about to be discharged from the NICU.

When Ms. Treherne proposed the idea of the Parents’ Crafts Workshop last December, she immediately won the support of Chloe Décarie-Drolet, Head Nurse of the NICU, who praises Ms. Treherne for her consistent attentiveness to the families’ needs.

Ms. Décarie-Drolet notes that Ms. Treherne endeared herself to numerous parents—and demonstrated her own skill at crafts—when, several years ago, she began sewing miniature superhero capes for newborns who were about to be discharged from the NICU.

That initiative won her a Caring Beyond award from the hospital’s Humanization of Care Committee, to which Ms. Treherne turned for financial assistance in getting the crafts workshop off the ground.

“We thought it would be a great project and we were happy to support it,” says Susan Lavy, Co-Chair of the Committee, whose financial assistance helped pay for the supplies the mothers use for their projects.

Ms. Lavy says she and Co-Chair Krystle North are also hoping the workshop will be a means of bringing the committee’s peer-mentor program to more mothers in the NICU.

In this program, a mother whose baby was successfully treated and discharged from the NICU, returns as a volunteer to speak one-to-one with other parents, offering comfort and hope that their child will eventually be as healthy as any other baby.

An obstacle to a fully functioning peer-mentor program in the NICU is that there’s no fixed time when parents are available to meet with the volunteers, Ms. Lavy says.

However, now that the crafts workshop is up and running, it could provide volunteers with an opportunity to introduce themselves to mothers who may feel the need for someone to talk to.

Ms. Treherne takes pride in the fact that the crafts workshop came to life in what is primarily a hospital for adults, where there is no NICU specialist to focus on improving the psycho-social experience for parents and families.

“We’re the only pediatric centre in our hospital,” she says, “so it’s up to us to step forward and do whatever it takes to support the parents and families while we look after their babies.”