Avon family donates CuddleCot to Bridgeport Hospital in honor of son

An Avon family, whose son died shortly after birth, is hoping to help other families faced with perinatal loss. Recently, the Tibbling family donated a CuddleCot to Bridgeport Hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit. It’s a cooling device, used by grieving families, that preserves the infant’s body to provide them with the gift of time with their baby after loss, according to the product’s website.

Jonah Tibbling died shortly after birth due to complications from Potter syndrome, a rare condition that affects the growth of a baby’s kidneys. With the use of a CuddleCot, his mother, Malissa, says she and her husband were able to spend four days with Jonah, allowing her the time to make memories with her son.
“We had such a beautiful experience, even though this was such a hard thing to go through,” said Malissa Tibbling of Avon.

Tibbling said she wanted other parents to have that experience, and she wanted Jonah’s death to have a purpose. In lieu of flowers, she asked her friends and family to donate in Jonah’s name. She raised enough money to provide CuddleCots to three hospitals, including Bridgeport Hospital. “We wanted to give back to other people who had to go through this devastating loss,” said Tibbling.
Bridgeport Hospital has a robust perinatal bereavement program through the Joseph Keane Fund. It provides resources for grieving parents and special keepsakes to help them remember their children. The hospital has had a CuddleCot for years, but a few months ago, a nurse noticed it wasn’t working as well as it normally did. While Labor and Delivery looked to fix the existing CuddleCot, Malissa offered to donate a new one. The timing was ideal.
“For our families here at Bridgeport, being able to give them time to process the shock and the reality of their loss, to make memories with their infant and to take time to make decisions is, we feel, an important beginning on the grief journey,” said Elisabeth Schneider, NICU coordinator at Bridgeport Hospital. “It is our hope that in honoring their experience as parents and in honoring the privilege it is to know their child who was born still, we help them begin the journey of loss in a way that feels authentic, supportive and validating.

Written by: Amanda Raus