Valentine’s Day is often about the chocolate and flowers. But today, love was shown to babies in the hospital.
“One of our missions at Adventist Health is really to get back into the community and to inspire health in a way so that they don’t need to become patients here,” said Michelle Lawrence, the director of maternal child services. Adventist Health Bakersfield has partnered up with the American Heart Association to give hand-crotched hats to all babies born at the hospital in the month of February. Sonia Alatorre-Aldape is now a mother of six after giving birth to a baby girl at around ten this morning. Giana Angel Lopez is just one of the babies that received their red hats today.
The Little Hats, Big Hearts program raises awareness of heart disease, the number one killer of Americans, and congenital heart defects, the most common type of birth defect in the country. “Congenital heart defects are not just something you address later in life, it’s something that we need to address right away and so this is just to bring awareness,” said Kelly Zielsdorf, the NICU Manager at Adventist Health Bakersfield.
Thanks to volunteers who knitted the hats, Bakersfield Adventist Health plans to give out close to 300 this month. Twins Brisa and Bella were born prematurely a few weeks ago and are now healthy and happy in the NICU. “Babies always wear hats because it helps to keep them warm when they can’t keep themselves warm when they are premature,” said Zielsdorf. While the hospital says it doesn’t need any more red hats for this month they could always use hats in different colors and styles for babies born at any time of the year.
