'Cherished moments': North Canton couple help grieving parents statewide facing newborn loss
A North Canton couple who are on a nationwide mission to help other grieving parents facing a stillbirth or newborn loss are celebrating a milestone in their own state.
Erin and Tony Maroon’s first baby, Ashlie Cathren Maroon, died in utero at 41 weeks and a day on Oct. 27, 2015, after a healthy pregnancy. The baby’s umbilical cord had wrapped around her neck three times and her ankle once — an occurrence the parents were later told is usually not fatal.
In the fog of anesthesia and shock, Erin only had about 20 minutes after delivering Ashlie to hold her baby while a photographer took photos. But when Erin asked to see her baby the next day from the morgue, the baby’s body and blankets were frozen and her features had “turned angry.” She and her husband had about an hour over a two-day period to be with their baby.
They learned about the CuddleCot, a cool gel pad that uses distilled water and is laid under a blanket. It can keep a baby’s body temperature between 32 degrees and 42 degrees for up to 96 hours to give grieving parents the time they need to say goodbye.
The couple wants a unit in every U.S. hospital.
More: May 5, 2017 Beacon Journal story about Erin and Tony Maroon and Cuddle Cot
Recently, they placed a unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, marking a milestone that every Ohio hospital birthing department has been offered a CuddleCot or a similar cooling unit.
One birthing unit in the state was offered a unit but declined it, Erin Maroon said.
Ashlie’s Embrace, the nonprofit group formed by the Maroons that raises funds to place CuddleCots in hospitals across the country, has helped provide 53 of the 104 labor and delivery departments in Ohio with the cooling unit. The organization also helps families who want to raise funds to gift the cooling unit in their baby’s honor.
Each unit costs several thousand dollars.
"We are certainly not the only organization that has placed a cooling unit in Ohio hospitals, and there are other devices in use besides the CuddleCot. This truly has been a community effort. I'm just so proud Ohio has reached this milestone,” Erin Maroon said.
The group has now placed 118 units in hospitals in 27 states.
"This effort is by no means nearing completion," she said.
The CuddleCots have allowed us to offer a sense of comfort to our families suffering an infant loss as they provide a respectful space to keep the infant at the patient bedside," said Jennifer DiGeronimo, nurse manager of obstetrics at Lake Health West Medical Center in Willoughby. "By allowing our families the time they need to grieve their loss as well as to spend cherished time with their baby, we are able to provide our bereaved families with cherished moments that they might not have had with traditional post-mortem practices. The addition of the CuddleCots into our OB units has truly allowed us to care for our families in a more compassionate, loving and empathetic way."
To find out more about Ashlie’s Embrace or CuddleCots, go to www.ashliesembrace.org/donate
Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: North Canton Ashlie's Embrace reaches milestone placing CuddleCot units
