Four years after her own premature birth experience, a Utah mother is giving back to families spending the holidays in the NICU at the same hospital where she delivered her baby.
At the time, McKenzie McCombs was battling COVID-19 complications that left her in a coma. Doctors at St. Marks Hospital in Millcreek performed an emergency delivery in November 2021, and her son, Coleman, was born at 28 weeks, weighing 2 pounds, 6 ounces, KSL-TV reported.
Remembering the three months their own child spent in the NICU, she and her husband, Brycen, now make it a yearly tradition to hand out holiday gift baskets to NICU families, including items like chapstick and bath bombs.
“We got a little onesie that said my first Christmas, and when you’re in here for the holidays, that’s the last thing on your mind is buying a my first Christmas onesie for your baby,” McKenzie recalled to the outlet. “It meant so much to us.”
This year’s baskets also included voice recorders and notebooks to help both parents and nurses keep track of stats.
“On the days that we weren’t able to make it in, they would play the recorder for him, and then they would tell us, like his stats were good, his oxygen stayed up,” she shared.
Now a family of five, McKenzie says sharing their work on social media also lets them highlight other people’s stories.
Additionally, stopping by the NICU around the holidays helps give other families hope. Nurse Rebecca Cobb told the outlet, “They’re able to see, ‘Hey, that’s going to be my baby in a couple of years. They got through this really scary time, and I’ll be able to do that too,’ ” she said.
