Craig Hospital Childcare Resource Group Helps Patients Realize Their Full Parenting Potential

If you’re a parent, you can readily recall the feelings of elation and anticipation mixed with nerves and a bit of fear that comes with taking your firstborn home from the hospital. It’s an exciting and precious time, but a challenging one, too, as you’re suddenly responsible for a new life and have no first-hand experience to guide you.

For patients at Craig who are new or current parents, this challenge is heightened tenfold by their injury, and many feel uncertain about their ability to raise a child.

That’s where occupational therapists Frances (Franny) Griffin, Ruby Bolster and Nina Hutson come in. The trio manages Craig’s childcare resource group, a program that helps current and prospective parents who have sustained a brain or spinal cord injury participate in their role as a parent by using tools, techniques and equipment to optimize independence and safety.

Franny, Ruby and Nina are seasoned occupational therapists, having been at Craig for ten, six and 13 years, respectively. Occupational therapy helps individuals develop, recover or maintain activities that are meaningful to them, including childcare. It’s a field of therapy that leans heavily on creativity and collaboration between the therapist and patient to meet goals – an essential component for the childcare resource group.

“For every parent who becomes a patient at Craig, there is some level of potential for them to participate in their role as a parent and be involved with their child’s care,” Franny says. “Many patients don’t know what’s possible in terms of taking care of their babies or young children. They often underestimate how much they will be able to participate, and we are able to introduce new possibilities that they hadn’t considered.”

The team works to identify these opportunities by asking parents to prioritize the top three activities they’d like to participate in with their baby or young child as a starting point. These can include anything from diapering, dressing, feeding or bathing their baby to transporting their baby from wheelchair level to figuring out ways to engage in play from the floor or other elevated surfaces. 

The techniques used to support someone through these activities vary tremendously depending on how their physical and cognitive statuses have been impacted by their injury. For an individual with limited hand function who wants to bottle feed their baby, the team may recommend a cuff device that has been customized to fit the circumference of a bottle. For a patient who uses a wheelchair and wants to safely hold their child, there are various baby carriers for both the lap and the chest that can accommodate younger babies. 

Ruby said that often the most daunting task for patients is physically handling their baby, and they’re frequently asked questions like “How do I move with my baby when both hands are being used to propel a manual wheelchair?” or “How do I lift my baby when I have limited finger dexterity?” For that, the team uses a weighted baby doll so patients can practice some of these skills in a low-risk way.

Franny recalls working with a patient who sustained a spinal cord injury and had not yet held his six-month-old baby while seated in his wheelchair. After practicing with the weighted doll, they used a lap-carrier and a few other adaptations to securely place his daughter in his lap so he could drive her outside to see the fountain in Craig’s courtyard.

“His joy in being able to partake in this activity more independently was clearly evident,” Franny says. 

As mothers themselves, these moments are extra special for Franny, Ruby and Nina.

“Since becoming a parent, I appreciate the weight of responsibilities that comes with parenting and how it feels to live within this identity of being a mother,” Franny says. “My hope is to help other people restore this identity following their injury even if the routine may look a little different.”

Ruby adds, “Now that I have a child myself, I have a deeper level of appreciation for how multifaceted parenting is, and my interventions are more focused, nuanced and practical.”

In addition to their combined experience as occupational therapists and parents, the team is quick to point out that many of the tips, tricks and resources they provide to inpatients and outpatients have been gathered from Craig graduates who have been living with their injury for a significant period of time and have had children either before or after their injury. 

“We are so grateful to them for sharing their valuable experiences to help newly injured parents navigate this world and equip them with their tried-and-true strategies for approaching daily life as a parent,” Franny says. 

Through these various resources, the team has witnessed remarkable changes in their patients, citing that they commonly see them develop more confidence and awareness of their capabilities – a primary goal for any occupational therapist.

“Our patients are so much more than their injury,” Ruby says. “They are friends, sons and daughters, and parents. Accessing those roles can bring so much meaning and healing.”