Working in collaboration with a fellow nonprofit, Welcome Baby, myFace will launch in 2021 a new program to provide Newborn Craniofacial Care Kits to mothers, containing the items they’ll need for their child in the first four weeks of life. The kit will have items such as a layette, baby carrier wrap, diapers, socks, creams, wipes, and Dr. Brown’s bottles and pacifiers, specially designed for cleft and craniofacial babies.
In addition to the normal stresses of a newborn, parents with a craniofacial baby have so much more to navigate, including breathing and feeding issues. We are excited to launch this program and take one worry off the minds of new parents with a child impacted by a craniofacial difference.
When Thoughtful Kindness Meets Opportunity
As told by Erin, a grateful mom who’s paying it forward
My son, Greyson, is a fun, silly, and happy little boy who today, at twenty months, is a smiling toddler who climbs on everything, loves trucks, playing soccer, and gives the best hugs.
When Greyson was born, he tried to latch, but was having difficulty getting milk. The day after his birth, we were shocked to learn he had a cleft in his soft palate. All the emotions of excitement about the birth of our son soon turned to uncertainty and confusion. How were we going to be able to care for our baby when we knew nothing about cleft differences?
Fortunately, a member of our craniofacial care team was at our side within hours of the news. After a whirlwind of speaking with the team, we were exhausted with digesting so much new information.
That’s when we were introduced to a young man who was born with a cleft lip and palate. As part of his bar mitzvah community service project, he was generously providing gift baskets to new parents filled with specialized products for cleft babies. It was only after we returned home with Greyson that we realized just how critical this basket was in the first weeks of our son’s life.
“Knowing this wasn’t a long-term program for this young man, we saw an opportunity to pay it forward and help provide vital products and resources to other new parents.”
I brought the idea to myFace. The stars were aligning because myFace was already brainstorming with Welcome Baby on how to expand the work they had launched years before. Could we all work together to expand Welcome Baby’s mission to provide low-income mothers with one comprehensive kit that contains everything she and her newborn needs for the first four weeks of life? Yes we could, and from there the project took off! We are all very excited to launch this new program in 2021.
“Our hope in providing these kits to families with craniofacial and cleft babies is to simply make life easier.”
I want them to feel supported and to know they are not alone. Every mother deserves to feel confident that they can handle life with a baby who has a craniofacial difference. My husband and I are thrilled to have provided the seed funding to support the delivery of 130+ of these Newborn Craniofacial Care Kits working in collaboration with myFace and Welcome Baby. These essential products and resources for new parents will hopefully make the transition of bringing a baby home just a little easier.
