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NICU 'cuddlers' provide comfort to preemies at St. Luke's: 'It's essential'

The volunteer position is so coveted that there is a long waiting list to become a "cuddler."

BOISE - A volunteer position as St. Luke's in Boise is so coveted that there two-year waiting list just to get in the door. The job? Cuddling and comforting preemies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Kelcy Mann's baby boy, Griffin, has been in the St. Luke's NICU for nearly two months. She can't be with him all the time, although she'd like to be.

That's where the comfort of the NICU cuddlers comes in. Their only job, is to cuddle and comfort these tiny babies.

"It's really hard but it's such a blessing to know that not only does he have amazing doctors and nurses taking care of him but there are also volunteers that can come and just cuddle him," Mann said. "He's doing really well, and I think it's just because he's surrounded by such great people all the time."

One of those volunteer cuddlers is Molly Ackley Brown, who worked as a nurse in the NICU before retiring in 2014. She loves snuggling babies like Griffin, and she comes once a week to step in where she's needed.

"You can stay as long as you want," Ackley Brown explained. "And it's just dependent on how many babies need to be cuddled. You might be here a couple hours or longer depending on what the babies need."

Credit: Paul Boehlke/KTVB
Molly Ackley Brown cuddles a preemie at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center. A retired NICU nurse, Ackley Brown says she jumped at the opportunity to return as a volunteer "cuddler." (Photo: Paul Boehlke/KTVB)

Ackley Brown says cuddling preemies wasn't always the norm, because of a "hands-off culture" in neonatal medicine.

"They really didn't want you to touch the babies," she said. "As neonatal medicine progressed, they just found that was kind of wrong thinking - that the earlier that they were held and that the bonding experience was established, it was so much better for them overall."

This program officially started in 2007. There are 19 cuddlers at St. Luke's, and they are scheduled throughout the week.

"They are amazing people," said Maria Tucker, a neonatal nurse practitioner at St. Luke's. "They come and donate their time, they are here whenever we need them. And sometimes we don't have a baby that needs to be cuddled at that moment, they will wait."

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Tucker says the cuddlers provide a necessary service.

"It's essential," she said. "The bedside nurses rely on them heavily to help keep those babies calm."

For Ackley Brown, it's an opportunity to give back to the families and staff.

"I know that makes the parents feel a lot more relaxed and they can go home and sleep at night," she said. "It's probably the best volunteer experience ever, there's just nothing like holding a baby."

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