CLEVELAND — A nonprofit is working to help families across Northeast Ohio find comfort in their most challenging moments. Project NICU is dedicated to providing comprehensive support to families with children receiving care in the neonatal intensive care unit.
And now, the organization is taking it a step further — sponsoring and opening its first-ever respite room in Cleveland.
It's all thanks to a blossoming partnership with MetroHealth System and the MetroHealth Foundation.
Project NICU's Respite Room at MetroHealth aims to provide a peaceful space for parents navigating the emotional challenges of having a child in the neonatal intensive care unit. The new Respite Room is located steps away from Metro's NICU.
Thanks to MetroHealth, Project NICU volunteers and workers work hand in hand with current NICU and hospital staff to transform an old lounge into a serene oasis for anyone who needs a moment to breathe.
"This space is a quiet space. It's a space of support, resources and just a place to get away from the beeping and all of the stimulation of the NICU," Meaghan Musarra, a Project NICU family advocate, said.
The Respite Room was years in the making. It features artwork created by graduates of the MetroHealth NICU. The space is designed to give families a place to rest, recharge and find comfort during one of their most vulnerable times.
"We're hoping to drag them out of the NICU for a moment and give them a place to take a deep breath and calm down," Musarra said.
Musarra knows first-hand the challenges NICU families face. Two of her three children were MetroHealth NICU babies. Her son James spent five hours there, while her daughter Maggie stayed for two weeks after being born at 33 weeks, weighing just four pounds.
"My secondborn — she was in the NICU. She was born at 33 weeks. She was a little 4-pounder. She did well, but she needed time to grow, learning how to feed and she had some infection risks as well. She spent a couple weeks, and I had a two-year-old at home at the time, so I felt that tug of being in the NICU and wanting to be at home," Musarra said.
After discovering Project NICU online during the pandemic and finding support through their online community, Musarra made it her mission to help other NICU parents feel seen and understood.
"It just became a big place of support for me, and so knowing my time in the NICU and what I could have used then, it has been a big part of my healing process and my passion to make sure other families have what I could have used," Musarra said.
MetroHealth became Project NICU's first partner hospital, and the nursing staff has embraced the collaboration over the past couple of years.
"Having this organization come into our hospital has really been a godsend for them, for the families. All the support that it brings," Connie Eggleston, nurse manager at MetroHealth NICU, said.
Emily Pringle, assistant nurse manager at MetroHealth NICU, said the partnership reflects the hospital's commitment to comprehensive care.
"It becomes a place where smiles are certainly more common than tears," Pringle said.
Project NICU will use the respite room regularly for current patients' loved ones and hold monthly in-person support meetings there.
"Project NICU. That's what they provide... TLC... Tender loving care. And we see that in the soft colors, the procurement of the artwork, the furniture," Pringle said. "We will listen to you... We will comfort you. We will give you everything that we have."
The nonprofit also distributes care packages for families, hosts baby showers and offers virtual support groups that can be accessed from the NICU bedside.
For more information on MetroHealth's service and ways to support Project NICU's mission, CLICK HERE.
