COLUMBUS - While not carried by three wise men, babies born at Columbus Community Hospital are benefiting from two recent warm and cuddly gifts.
On the heels of a recent donation of blankets from Project Linus, another nonprofit group has donated a collection of baby clothes designed for premature infants to the maternal child health department at the hospital.
After a child was recently born prematurely at the hospital, Diane Ward, director of maternal child health, happened upon a brochure and a sample from Sewing for Babies, a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that has combined a love for babies with a love of sewing, knitting and crocheting to provide warm blankets and clothing for sick and needy babies in Nebraska.
Ward sent Kay Banner, an organizer of the group who is based in Minden, an e-mail about the preemie at the hospital, and was amazed about the unexpected response. What she eventually got back were 28 preemie sleepers, two preemie gowns, a blanket and three sets of booties.
"I mean, I didn't expect anything like that at all. I was flabbergasted. I was overwhelmed," Ward said.
"With the preemie things, you can't find them that small and they're so expensive," Banner said.
Ward said the clothes will be used for premature infants, with the goal to be able to send clothes home with each one.
"It's hard to find tiny, little clothes. We can send four or five little outfits home and have more for the next one, and if we run out, she says just call and they'll make us some more," Ward said.
The incidence of premature births doesn't happen often. Ward said there are usually two to three births per year in which the baby weighs under 3 pounds. Before a preemie leaves the hospital, they're usually fattened up to close to 5 pounds.
Basically, the baby must be able to eat and maintain its heat before it can go home. Ward said it's great to have some clothes available for preemies, and for those who may not have the means to buy enough articles of clothing.
"It happens every once in a grand while that somebody doesn't have anything," Ward said.
Karl Heithoff of Columbus has been making items for Sewing for Babies for seven years. She started with Banner's group in Minden but now sews with women from Lincoln because it is a little closer. However, all of them are essentially together, she said.
"We make sleepers, I've crocheted little hats for them, little booties for them. And we do quilts and afghans. All kinds of little things," Heithoff said.
Heithoff's daughter graduated in 1996, a son graduated in 2000, and she has a licensed daycare in her home so she was looking for something to do. She found Sewing for Babies on the Internet.
"I found there's all kinds of different charities and places that work with babies, but this one was in Nebraska," she said. "I really like babies and didn't have any kids around except for my youngest son who works a lot, so I was trying to look for something to kind of fill up my time."
Heithoff said she finds it rewarding.
According to the Sewing for Babies Web site, the group organized in 1998 and incorporated in October 2000. It includes volunteers from across Nebraska and Kansas and delivers to hospitals, social services, crisis pregnancy centers, abuse centers, WIC offices, various other women and children agencies, and to individual families.
Currently, work groups meet in Lincoln, Minden, Kearney and Beatrice. The organization is entirely volunteer and is funded solely through donations. All the group's articles of clothing are donated to people in need at no charge.
Banner said the organization has about 200 women who are part of the group. She got involved after reading a magazine article about babies going home from the hospital wearing only a diaper.
"And the nurses knew they would be back with pneumonia because the mother had no clothes for them. We've actually had that happen, to a point where a nurse comes along and grabs a layette we've taken in because the parents were waiting for someone to bring clothes so they could take the baby home," Banner said.
"We're just sharing what God gives us; that's kind of what our mission is - to try to provide warm and toasty clothing and blankets for the babies," she said.
Sewing for Babies, Inc. e-mail address is: kay@sewingforbabies.org
On the Web: www.sewingforbabies.org
"I've been doing daycare for 17 years, and when you don't get out of the house, you have to do something or you'll go stir crazy," she joked.
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