Couple donates pillows for newborns
Foster parents donate pillows for newborns
Foster parents Jessica and Tom Flatley of Amity Township started Boppys for Bunny, a donation project to help infants at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Jessica posted on her Facebook page in early June that she had a goal to collect 20 Boppy Newborn Loungers if anyone wanted to help out. She set up a public Amazon Wish List titled Boppys for Bunny and had them shipped directly to their shop, the Lucky Squirrel Printworks in Douglassville.
“I know that everyone in our circle wants to help us, not everyone can foster but everyone can support if you show them how,” Jessica said in an email.
Jessica explained the inspiration for the donation project.
“Our littlest love nicknamed Bunny is inpatient at CHOP,” she said. “Her amazing nurses mentioned how much quieter her floor would be if all of the babies had one of the Boppy Newborn Loungers that Bunny has.
“So I spoke to the child life department on her floor to make sure that they would be allowed to use the pillows (there are often safe sleep practices that need to be followed) and she assured me that yes, while they were on
monitors they would be allowed to use the pillows, but that the babies would then get to take them home when discharged as they cannot be sanitized for the next
baby.”
Two weeks after the initial Facebook post, the couple received 170 Boppy Newborn Loungers.
The couple, who plan to hold a
yearly drive, delivered the pillows to the hospital Tuesday to more than just Bunny’s floor.
“We are able to donate them to the entire hospital,” Jessica said.