Connecticut family donates CuddleCot to Bridgeport Hospital in honor of the son they lost

BRIDGEPORT, CT (August 26, 2024) – A Connecticut 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.”

Bridgeport Hospital, part of Yale New Haven Health, is a non-profit 501-bed acute care hospital with two campuses (plus 42 beds licensed to Yale New Haven Children's Hospital). Its Bridgeport and Milford Campuses serve patients from across the region. The hospital admits more than 23,000 patients and provides nearly 350,000 outpatient treatments annually. The Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital is the only burn center in the state and one of only 64 verified burn centers in the United States. Bridgeport Hospital is committed to providing safe, compassionate and cost efficient care to its patients and the community. www.bridgeporthospital.org