Nicole Cox uses her experience of having a premature baby to give back to other moms dealing with the same journey by providing bags stuffed with helpful goods for families in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Nicole did not expect her newborn son Liam to arrive early, born at 34 weeks. She stayed 27 days at North Colorado Medical Center’s (NCMC) neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), nor was she ready for the emotional roller coaster that came with having a premature baby.
Liam is now a healthy baby, and Nicole focuses on giving back to other mothers dealing with premature births.
“This was the first time I ever had pregnancy complications,” Nicole said. “Until you go through it, you don’t really know,” said Nicole.
Nicole returned to the hospital’s Level 3 special care nursery with bags in tow to give mothers in early October. She shared the bags with the staff of the hospital to give to the new mothers with the hope of making their stay a little easier for the moment.
The bags or care packages were filled with items from hair ties and lip balm to gum, snacks, stress balls, and coloring books. Roughly 30 bags and hopes to turn “Love for Liam” into a nonprofit organization to continue giving back to moms in the NICU within Nothern Colorado.
“The hardest thing is to carry a baby inside of you for so long and then have to leave the hospital without them,” Nicole said. “I started talking with other moms after my experience and wanted to give back to moms in the same situation,” said Nicole.
Nicole began pitching the idea of Love for Liam to Facebook friends. She began seeing donations after speaking with mothers and researching a nonprofit organization in Idaho that does similar work. After distributing the first round of gifts, she aims to continue to build Love for Liam and grow it into an ongoing legacy for her son and other premature babies.
Autumn Woltemath, associate director of NICU and pediatrics, stated that the gifts would aid mothers in passing the long hours waiting in the quiet NICU.
For more information regarding Nicole’s program, visit @Love From Liam on Facebook.