Photographs of Deceased Infants Give Parents Lifelong Memories

The famous childhood prayer begins, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” The line will always invoke images of little children kneeling by their beds, talking to an unseen spirit who will hold their lives in care when they finally drift off to sleep.

The name seems a perfect moniker for a young non-profit organization that photographs babies whose lives are confined to a sterile hospital environment because of complications or illness at birth. In addition to the memories of smell, touch and even the taste on the lips from a kiss to a newborn’s head, parents can now have professional photographs made of their newborn so that a tangible reminder will remain of the precious few moments shared between parent and child.

The idea was born of the desperation of parents on the verge of losing their son, Maddux. Cheryl and her husband, Michael, had just learned that Maddux was not breathing on his own and was rushed to the NICU shortly after birth. As Cheryl had undergone a C-Section, Maddux’s behavior was not unusual. Babies often experience a tougher time taking their first independent breath after such a procedure.

“It was something I was prepared for,” Cheryl said.

What she wasn’t prepared for were the events that unfolded over the next 12 hours. The doctor informed them that even Maddux should have taken a breath by now, he was not improving. He was fully on life. Though Maddux fought for his life, an obscure disease prevented him from ever developing the neurological ability to control his breathing outside the womb.

Cheryl and Michael had seen a display of baby photography in the hospital by a photographer named Sandy Puc’. They called her and asked her to come to the hospital immediately.

“We knew that he was always going to be important in our life,” said Cheryl, already a mother of three other children. “I knew that he was going to have a spot in my home with all my other kids and not be forgotten.”