Cape Coral Hospital's Heart to Heart program
Help NICU babies bond with their parents.
Cape Coral Hospital gives three cotton flannel hearts to each NICU family. One heart is placed near the baby and the others are for parents to wear.
Why do they do this?
Research has shown parental, especially maternal, scent positively affects hospitalized babies. It helps them bond with parents, even while they're in the NICU, and creates the familiarity the baby needs to start and continue breastfeeding.
But there's a problem.
The hospital doesn't have enough hearts, so they're rationing only two hearts to each family, which means that, in families with two parents, one parent is getting left out.
Secular Liberty Homeschoolers is working to fix that. Our goal is to donate at least 100 homemade hearts to Cape Coral Hospital on Valentine's Day.
What better day to give your heart to a bright & beautiful NICU baby?
How you & your family can help:
- Donate fabric. "Cotton flannel" is the fabric the hospital has specifically requested.
- Cut cotton flannel fabric by downloading the 5" x 5" heart template below.
- Sew sets of two cut-out hearts together to make some of the cutest finished products you’ll ever see. (The hospital specifically requested that the hearts must be 5" x 5" and that there be no filler between the two hearts, so please just sew two heart pieces together. That's really all there is to it!)
- Decorate tags that’ll be included with hearts the hospital gives to NICU families. Just download the template below, use it on a heavier stock paper and let your child(ren) go to town!
Download our template for hearts & tags.
Please bring donations to the following event:
It's an early Valentine’s Day Party!
Friday, February 2
9:30 a.m.
Click the link above for location and further details.
Friday, February 9
9:30 a.m.
Click the link above for location and further details.