Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) is a U.S. based charitable organization operating worldwide, that offers free professionally taken photographs of stillborn babies and babies who die early in life. [1] [2] [3]
Founded in 2005 in Colorado by photographer Sandy Puc' and parents Cheryl and Mike Haggard [4] whose baby died as an infant, [2] the organization is active in all 50 states, plus 40 other countries, [5] including Ireland [6] and Canada. [7] The group has 3000 volunteer photographers worldwide [6] and has provided services to more than 30,000 families. [2] The group is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado.
In the late 19th century, post-mortem photography was popular and culturally accepted, though it fell out of style early the next century. This cultural shift was accompanied by a rejection of emotional bonding with stillborn babies, and infants who had died. [7] Change in attitudes began in the 1970s and 1980s. [8]
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is part of this increased concern for the emotional needs of grieving parents. [9] Describing their photos, one mother wrote "They are not gruesome, they are not offensive, they are not graphic, nor are they violent". She went on to say "They are real life, in all its beauty and agony." [10]
An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. Infant is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term baby. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of other organisms. A newborn is, in colloquial use, an infant who is only hours, days, or up to one month old. In medical contexts, a newborn or neonate is an infant in the first 28 days after birth; the term applies to premature, full term, and postmature infants.
Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can often result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The term is in contrast to miscarriage, which is an early pregnancy loss, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, where the baby dies a short time after being born alive.
Attachment parenting (AP) is a parenting philosophy that proposes methods aiming to promote the attachment of parent and infant not only by maximal parental empathy and responsiveness but also by continuous bodily closeness and touch. The term attachment parenting was coined by the American pediatrician William Sears. There is no conclusive body of research that shows Sears' approach to be superior to "mainstream parenting".
Co-sleeping or bed sharing is a practice in which babies and young children sleep close to one or both parents, as opposed to in a separate room. Co-sleeping individuals sleep in sensory proximity to one another, where the individual senses the presence of others. This sensory proximity can either be triggered by touch, smell, taste, or noise. Therefore, the individuals can be a few centimeters away or on the other side of the room and still have an effect on the other. It is standard practice in many parts of the world, and is practiced by a significant minority in countries where cribs are also used.
Beryl Ann "Bel" Mooney is an English journalist and broadcaster. She currently writes a column for the Daily Mail, having previously written – mainly as a columnist – for other publications including the Daily Mirror, The Times (2005–07), The Sunday Times (1982–83) and The Listener.
On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep is a Christianity-based infant management book written by Gary Ezzo and pediatrician Robert Bucknam in 1993. Baby Wise presents an infant care program which the authors say will cause babies to sleep through the night beginning between seven and nine weeks of age. It emphasizes parental control of the infant's sleep, play and feeding schedule rather than allowing the baby to decide when to eat, play and sleep.
A memory box is a box containing objects that serve as reminders.
Post-mortem photography is the practice of photographing the recently deceased. Various cultures use and have used this practice, though the best-studied area of post-mortem photography is that of Europe and America. There can be considerable dispute as to whether individual early photographs actually show a dead person or not, often sharpened by commercial considerations. The form continued the tradition of earlier painted mourning portraits. Today post-mortem photography is most common in the contexts of police and pathology work.
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day is an annual day of remembrance observed on October 15 for pregnancy loss and infant death, which includes miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, ectopic pregnancy, termination for medical reasons, and the death of a newborn. Pregnancy and infant loss is a common experience that has historically been complicated by broadly applied social and cultural taboos to stay silent, a condition that the World Health Organization advocates reversing in favor of open expression. A growing number of public figures have come out in support of open expression, with many leading by example through the disclosure of their personal experiences of pregnancy loss and infant death.
A reborn doll is a hand made art doll created from a blank kit or a manufactured doll that has been transformed by an artist to resemble a human infant with as much realism as possible. The process of creating a reborn doll is referred to as reborning and the doll artists are referred to as reborners. Reborn dolls are also known as lifelike dolls or reborn baby dolls.
Teen Mom is an American reality television series broadcast by MTV. It is the first spin-off of 16 and Pregnant, and it focuses on the lives of several young mothers as they navigate motherhood and strained family and romantic relationships. Its first run consists of four seasons originally aired between December 8, 2009, and October 9, 2012, while another four seasons have aired during its second run that began on March 23, 2015. Season 9 premiered on January 26, 2021.
Infant sleep training or controlled crying is an approach to improve a child’s sleep behavior by a parent or caregiver responding to their infant’s crying at increasing time intervals to allow the child to settle down independently. Experts recommend infant sleep training not begin before 6 months of age.
Sandy "Sam" Puc' is an American photographer, commercial video producer, teacher, author, and businesswoman. She served on the board of directors of the Professional Photographers of America for many years. Puc' holds the titles of Print Master and Explorer of Light from Canon USA. and her images have been displayed in magazines, public and professional buildings, billboards, and television.
The Mariposa Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded by Zoë Clark-Coates, to support people who have suffered baby loss, in pregnancy, at birth or in infancy. It holds public Services of Remembrance, of any or no religious faith, across the UK to acknowledge the loss of a baby by their families, and by arranging specialist support divisions to help people with their associated grief and trauma. It is one of the organizations that supports baby loss awareness week.
Laura Izumikawa Choi is a Southern California-based photographer who created a popular Instagram feed that features her daughter Joey often dressed in costumes as she sleeps during naps. Some of the photographs are published in the 2017 book, Naptime with Joey.
Athelstan Braxton Hicks was a coroner in London and Surrey for two decades at the end of the 19th century. He was given the nickname "The Children's Coroner" for his conscientiousness in investigating the suspicious deaths of children, and especially baby farming and the dangers of child life insurance. He would later publish a study on infanticide.
Abigail's Footsteps is a stillbirth charity organisation in the United Kingdom founded in 2010. They have donated material to several hospitals in England where stillbirths have occurred. By 2013 they had also raised over 15 thousand pounds for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society.
Stillbirth Foundation Australia is an organization which aims to improve care and conditions for people who have experienced the stillbirth of a child as well as preventing stillbirth. Their main work is funding research on why stillbirth happens. They have also encouraged Australian companies to allow parents of stillborn children to have parental leave. It is the only charity in Australia dedicated to stillbirth research.
Still Aware is a charity organisation which attempts to raise awareness of stillbirth as a national issue in Australia, since stillbirth rates in the country are high for a developed nation. It is Australia's first stillbirth awareness organization and the first not-for-profit charity solely dedicated to ending preventable stillbirths.
A rainbow baby is a term for a child born to a family that has previously lost one or more children due to stillbirth, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, termination for medical reasons, or death during infancy. These subsequent pregnancies can bring "strong feelings of anxiety, guilt, and even fear" but also "immense joy, reflection, healing, and mixed emotions". The term "rainbow" is symbolic of the hope brought by the child after the emotional storm of the previous loss.