"Cuddle Cot" for grieving families comes to Bay Area Hospital

COOS BAY, Ore. - A technology new to the US helps grieving families who have lost a child.

Thanks to a non-profit and a Coquille mom, it's now being used at Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay.

Suzanne Swan and her husband Paul have lost three children between them.

"When I gave birth, she was already gone," said Swan.

She experienced two stillborns in the late '70s, Chelene and Philip. Her husband had lost his son Adam around the same time.

"You never really get over it, you sort of learn to survive and live with it," Swan said.

She connected via Facebook with Maryssa Yager-Petersen, the coordinator of fundraisers for the non-profit Warner Grange.

Yager-Petersen coordinated the April 2019 dinner and auction fundraiser in Canby. At the end of the night, they'd raised $21,000 to purchase six cuddle cots.

Two have been delivered to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria, and Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Two more are slated to be delivered to Tillamook General Hospital and Mid Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles.

The cuddle cot is something Swan said she wished she'd had.

"It's a refrigerated bassinet that allows the baby to spend more time with the family without the decomposition setting in, that is natural with a demise," Yager-Petersen said.

This past April was the second round of cuddle cot fundraisers.

Yager-Petersen had previously raised over $23,000 to fund seven cuddle cots at hospitals throughout Oregon.

As of May 2017, there were only five cuddle cots in the State of Oregon. In October 2017, they hosted a fundraiser that brought in over $22,000. Funds were used to purchase seven cots for Portland and surrounding area hospitals, Legacy Emmanuel, Providence St Vincent’s, Legacy Meridian Park, Legacy Good Samaritan, OHSU Hospital, Legacy Mt Hood, and St. Charles Hospital in Bend.

At Bay Area Hosptial, OB Tech Jenny Smith unpacked the cuddle cot to show the main portion is a machine that takes distilled water, cools it, and pipes it to a cooling pad that would lay underneath a baby.

The cuddle cot chills the water to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, to keep the baby cool and give the family the gift of time.

Smith has had a miscarriage, has friends who've lost children, and said she sympathizes with those families.

"We really support bonding with the parents as much as possible, we know this is the only chance they're going to get," Smith said.

Smith said the cuddle cot gives them time together they need.

Swan said it allows for more precious memories.

To the surprise of Swan, Yager-Petersen had the Bay Area Hospital cuddle cot dedicated to the memory of swan's "angel babies", Chelene, Philip and Adam.

Yager-Petersen said the warner grange has two more cuddle cots to place in hospitals.

You can reach out via their Facebook page for more information.