Nurse spreads love through teddy bears

A nurse at the child-birth unit at Memorial Hospital is spreading love through teddy bears.

Nurse Lauren Rose decided no one who loses a baby should go home from the hospital with empty arms.

She has lost a child and wanted parents going through the same pain to leave with a bear and a message of hope.

"This is our first annual memory bear drive and ceremony working in the child birth unit and the NICU. We experience about 70 to 100 losses on the child birth unit per year and about 15 to 20 in the NICU per year. Every parent that leaves the hospital, we give them a teddy bear so that they, although they are not leaving with their child, they're leaving not empty handed," Rose said.

Thanks to donations, more than 400 bears have been purchased to give to families during their time of loss.

"It's so hard not to have them, but it's nice to have something to at least take home and you always have it. You treasure it. We still have it and we put it in a special place in their bedroom and it'll always be there whenever I look at it. Personally it makes me think about them and know that they're still with us," said Josh Martin, who lost twins.

In addition to the bears, cuddle cot cooling units have also been donated.

They preserve babies who are still born or pass away shortly after birth so that the family has time to say goodbye.