The loss of a newborn baby can be the most painful experience a family endures. However, for the last two years, members of the UW-Madison Textile and Apparel Design Students Association have lent their time and talent to grieving families, designing garments especially made for tiny bodies. The group meets Sunday to assemble the gowns for this semester.
Before this program, the scarcity of garments to accommodate the size of these babies proved a difficult problem for Meriter Hospital, according to Mae Knowles of the hospital's public affairs department.
\Frequently, families want to take pictures with the babies and there was no clothing to dress the babies,"" she said.
However, Meriter Hospital's Women's Health Services secretary, Sally Evans, came up with a solution. She contacted UW-Madison professors in the textile design department, asking if they could help and the project was born.
Katie Rowell, a UW-Madison sophomore, will participate Sunday. She said the group will make not only gowns, but complete outfits.
""[The TDSA] makes clothing with matching hats and socks and Meriter Hospital now uses them as part of their bereavement program.""
Doris Green, of the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology, said the garments are designed for very tiny infants whose body proportions are much different from infants who are full-term.
Also, these babies have very fragile skin, which according to Knowles, plays an key part in designing these outfits.
Green said that these challenges in design provide a great experience for students.
""They get some real-world experience and they're really providing a service ... the type of garment they are making is not readily available on the marketplace.""
The supply of outfits made each semester lasts for nearly a year, and there are varieties of styles and fabrics for the parents to choose from.
In past years, hospital nurses gave students input to perfect the sewing pattern. Now, Meriter intends to share the students' work with other hospitals interested in a similar program.
""This next sewing session will be the final pattern. ... We can now offer this to other hospitals,"" Knowles said.
Evans said the group spends several hours making the outfits and the quality is matched only by the level of commitment the students show throughout this project.
""This has started to help the healing for these families,"" she said in a statement.
