Photos: Kelsey Graf
North Memorial’s NICU nurses have a fun Halloween tradition.
North Memorial Health–Maple Grove Hospital nurse Breeanna Obermann says that the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be a scary place for parents. “The four walls can make parents go crazy, and we want to give them some light,” she says. For the spooky season in particular, the team has adopted a tradition that gets its young patients and their parents involved in All Hallows’ Eve.
It started four years ago with an extravaganza of craft felt and tacky glue. “We have a ton of creative people on staff,” Obermann says. Nurses and nursing assistants brought their imaginations to the table and crafted Halloween costumes for the babies under their care. “It’s just kind of snowballed to this big, fun thing that we do every year,” Obermann says. “I think anything that we can do to create some normalcy for our parents and for our babies alike, we try to do that here.”
Obermann says the nursing team aren’t amateurs when it comes to marking milestones from first-week footprints to first bottles and any holiday in between. These celebrations come in the form of posters designed to go in a memory box for the parents. “Sometimes, they go home with a stack of 30 posters that we’ve made throughout their stay,” she says, noting she’s heard some parents incorporate the signs into a three-ring binder memory book. “I take a lot of pride in that because I make a lot of the signs, and I really love to do it. It’s like an extra piece of love that we can give to the parents.”
Although some babies spend their first Halloween in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, nurses and nursing assistants at North Memorial Health–Maple Grove Hospital ensure families can still participate in holiday fun.
Parents who want to participate in the Halloween fun can collaborate on the theme of the costume with the nursing staff. “Our spotlighted family last year, they had a The Very Hungry Caterpillar book that they read to him, so we made him the Very Hungry Caterpillar,” Obermann says. Costumes can match a nursery theme or involve beloved characters, she adds. “Do you love Winnie the Pooh? We can make a Winnie the Pooh costume. Or do you really love butterflies? We’ll make a butterfly costume.”
Come the start of October, the NICU team will be dreaming up its next batch of Halloween getups for the babies in its care. Obermann says it’s always special to see the parents’ reactions to the finished look. “It’s just a really fun experience, to take some pictures, to bring light into a stressful situation,” she says.
To see this year’s photoshoot, visit its Instagram @northmemorial.
North Memorial Health – Maple Grove Hospital
Instagram: @northmemorial
