👋🏽 Meet Marissa! @Marissa at Hand to Hold is a Family Support Specialist serving families at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, TX. Marissa is also a certified birth, postpartum, bereavement, and end of life doula. She is a certified chaplain through Stillbirthday. Marissa and her husband have had four pregnancies. She has experienced a stillbirth and a miscarriage, and has two living children. Her youngest spent a brief time in the NICU due to complications that arose during labor. Marissa understands the hardship, heartache, and anxiety that bereaved and NICU parents experience. She is passionate about helping parents find healthy ways of dealing with stress and anxiety. Marissa is passionate about using yoga, sound healing, and other therapies as means to assist parents, and herself, through these difficult journeys. Marissa’s advice for NICU parents: "Be kind to yourself. You are exactly what your baby needs, and no one can be a better parent to your baby than you. You have an amazingly important and special role in your baby’s life and their care. Hang in there, it will get easier." 💚 Thank you, Marissa, for sharing your journey with us! 💚 The NICU is hard. We're here to help. Find support groups, peer mentors, and more in teh Get Support section of the menu!

Posted by Leigh Ann at Hand to Hold at 2023-10-06 14:00:02 UTC