SMC accepts donation of equipment to help families after stillbirth

• By Beau Simmons CNHI News Oklahoma
•  
  • Feb 17, 2019

There is almost no way to prepare a family for the news that a child they had been waiting to welcome into the world did not or will not survive. It’s so sudden and so overwhelmingly that only those who have experienced stillbirth can explain it. Stillwater’s Catie MacDonald was away from home, all the way in another state when she went into labor at 18 weeks. A previous pregnancy had been high-risk, but she was told new treatments would allow her to avoid previous complications.

“Unfortunately, even with the treatment our daughter passed away at 18 weeks (in utero). The nightmare that day of learning that she died and then having to labor for hours and eventually giving birth is something I can’t describe to you,” McDonald said. “The hospital was out of state, and because I was out of state and away from my doctors, the experience was a lot more tragic than it should have been and a lot more traumatic than it really should have been because I was not given the support families need to have during that time.

“The shock of learning your baby died and having to give birth all within hours is something you can’t begin to describe. You are mentally in a state of shock where you can’t make logical decisions and yet at the same time you’re forced to make all of the decisions, funeral arrangements and things you don’t think about – Should I take pictures? Should I not take pictures? Who should invite to the hospital to see our baby? – and none of it is natural. When you deliver a live baby, a lot of it is very, very natural. You know that you should hold your baby. When your baby’s deceased, it’s complete unnatural and you don’t know what you should do.”

Because of the complications of the earlier pregnancy, MacDonald was already dedicating herself to helping families suffering the loss of an infant. She was collecting memories boxes for families, which contained outfits, caps, handprints and footprints, grief books and other items. When her own loss came, it was still shocking. She was nauseated, having trouble processing things mentally and dealing with an extremely hard truth – once delivered stillborn babies begin a rapid decaying process. It’s trauma atop trauma. MacDonald decided soon after she didn’t want other mothers and families to go through what she endured.

She had learned through previous research about devices that could cool and preserve a child’s body long enough for families to make important decisions. She was led to Brittany Martin and the Jaxon Cade Foundation, who were working to provide Oklahoma hospitals with Caring Cradles. A Caring Cradle is a bassinet that can get as cool as 46 degrees, but much like a cradle in an effort to normalize as much as possible an event that is anything but normal.

“When moms have access to something like this (Caring Cradle) it just gives them more time, not only to make those memories, but to know what they’re comfortable with. You’re recovering from labor. You’re sick. I was very, very sick from the medication they gave me, and that’s just 90 minutes, that not enough time to recover. Having this allows the moms and the dads to have a little bit of time to recover from that. So, they can have more time to make those decisions rather than leaving with a lot of regrets of what they wish they would have done,” she said. “As I was researching after my daughter was born and we went through this very traumatic experience, I knew I still wanted to buy one (Caring Cradle) but I wasn’t sure how. I stumbled upon the Jaxon Cade Foundation on Instagram one day, a rare and random thing, I think I was on a random hashtag. I came across them. I saw that she was in Oklahoma and she was buying these cradles, for I believe at the time seven or something hospitals, at the time. I called her up and met her at a blind date at a coffee shop, and I said, ‘I know probably sound like a crazy person, but If I raise enough money for Stillwater to have one, can we buy one for Stillwater?’ She said yes, thankfully.”

Martin, president of the foundation, described her own experience of stillbirth as her “world crashing.”

“In 2014, I went into the hospital for a routine induction. When I arrived I was met with the news that my child no longer had a heartbeat. In that moment, my world crashed down on me. My family’s world crashed down on them. It wasn’t something that was expected, there were not problems with the pregnancy so it was complete shock. I went into the hospital to have my baby and bring my baby home and that wasn’t going to happen. In that moment my whole entire future changed. Our whole family dynamic changed. My marriage changed. It changed my entire life,” she said. “I found a device in the UK called a cuddle cot. Things have changed since then. Advances in technology, We have switched to Caring Cradle since then. The main idea was to keep the baby’s body cool so the decaying process wasn’t so quick and so you could spend some time with a baby that you were going to spend your whole life with, and now you have just minutes. There were none in Oklahoma at all, and I think there was four in the United States total when we had this idea to create this foundation and try to raise money for one.”

Now, because of Martin’s program and MacDonald’s hustle, there is a Caring Cradle at the Stillwater Medical Center. MacDonald needed $5,000, she got $15,000 and was able to put two other Caring Cradles in Tulsa hospitals. The cradle was presented Wednesday to SMC in honor of the MacDonald’s baby girl, Olivia.

“First of all, we want to express our deepest condolences to Catie and her husband on the loss of their baby girl, Olivia. Most of us will never understand the deep pain that goes along with infant lost,” SMC CEO Denise Weber said. “Catie has unselfishly taken action to help assist other grieving parents and allow them to have more time to say their goodbyes. So again, thank you to Catie, her family and all those who contributed to this very selfless and generous effort.

“On behalf of our team at Stillwater Medical, we would like to sincerely thank Catie for all the work she has done to provide us with a Caring Cradle for our OB department.”