Upcoming EventsThis private suite offers a personal place for families of infant loss to process, grieve and heal.
Nyack, N.Y. October 15, 2024 – Montefiore Nyack Hospital hosted a dedication ceremony on October 4, 2024, to unveil its new Butterfly Suite, a private room for families who experience a stillbirth. Rowan Mae’s Butterfly Suite was dedicated by the Hernandez/Minaya Family who tirelessly raised funds and collaborated on the sensitive design of the room with a multidisciplinary team comprised of Montefiore Nyack’s Maternal-Child Health clinical team at The Jacobs Family Maternity Center and the Montefiore Nyack Foundation.
Inspired by the memory of Rowan Mae, who was born still on July 26, 2021, the suite aims to offer a safe and nurturing space for families to process, grieve and honor their beloved child during one of the worst moments of their lives. Stillborn (stillbirth) means the death of a baby before birth, occurring after the 20th week of gestation. This can occur before or during the delivery of the baby. About 1% of pregnancies overall result in stillbirth, meaning that there are about 24,000 stillbirths each year in the United States, 1 in 64 pregnancies.
“Most families who experience stillbirth and neonatal tragedies do not have a safe space away from successful deliveries,” Felicia Hernandez says. “After experiencing the loss of my daughter Rowan, my mother Jena Hernandez, and I made it our mission to support grieving families while educating expectant parents. The butterfly is the universal symbol of pregnancy loss. The Butterfly Suite at Montefiore Nyack is Rowan Mae’s enduring legacy.”
Rowan Mae’s Butterfly Suite is a spacious, softly lit, secluded room that is purposely situated away from the nursery and bustle of the labor and delivery unit. The Butterfly Suite is fully equipped with everything grieving families may require, including:
- A nursery setting with a rocking chair, and bookshelves with children’s books for siblings and parents to read to their child
- A queen bed and a sofa pull-out where parents and families can sleep, rest or sit
- A CuddleCot™ (bassinet) which consists of a cool gel pad that keeps the baby’s body temperature measured to allow families extra time to be together
- A comfort kit filled with self-care products from Aaliyah in Action
- A large shower and sink with individual toiletry packs for families, lush towels, and post-delivery care kits for mothers. Pajamas, socks and slippers are available, too.
- Items that will help families create remembrance keepsakes and a digital camera with SD cards
- A coffee nook with soothing teas, calming beverages, and a microwave for heating soups and other food items. Each family will have access to gift cards to order food into the suite from outside the hospital.
Most importantly, no family will leave without the support needed to help them through grieving and healing.
“Rowan Mae’s Butterfly Suite provides our families with a safe, respectful space to create precious memories with their baby and begin their healing process,” says Maria M. Emerson, MD, FACOG, medical director of The Jacobs Family Maternity Center at Montefiore Nyack Hospital. “In advance of our opening of Rowan Mae’s Butterfly Suite, our labor and delivery and mother/baby nurses underwent bereavement education and sensitivity training to ensure that a family experiencing pregnancy and infant loss will be supported.”
In addition to Rowan Mae’s Butterfly Suite, the Hernandez/Minaya family has funded the continuation of bereavement training for future hires of The Jacobs Family Maternity Center through a program offered by the Adalyn Rose Foundation, as well as the evidence-based “Count the Kicks” awareness program that will be implemented at The Prenatal Center at Montefiore Nyack Hospital. Created by Healthy Birth Day, Inc., “Count the Kicks” educates and encourages expectant parents to monitor fetal movements at the start of the third trimester of pregnancy by counting and tracking the baby’s kicks daily. Count the Kicks is committed to eliminating racial disparities in stillbirth and stopping preventable stillbirths by making kick counting common practice for all expectant parents. In Iowa, where Count the Kicks began the state’s stillbirth rate dropped nearly 32 percent in the first 10 years of the campaign (2008-2018).
The Hernandez/Minaya family, in partnership with the Montefiore Nyack Foundation, hopes to support mothers throughout their pregnancy by expanding awareness of topics that could save a baby’s life with additional education materials provided by PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy.
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day is observed annually on October 15. This significant day falls on a Tuesday in 2024. It offers a meaningful opportunity for individuals, families, and communities to come together to remember and support those affected by pregnancy and infant loss.
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About Montefiore Nyack Hospital
Montefiore Nyack Hospital is a 391-bed community acute care medical and surgical hospital that was founded in 1895 and is in Rockland County, NY. Its mission is to provide competent, innovative and accessible emergency and acute care services to the residents of Rockland County and surrounding areas. It is a member of Montefiore Health System and a partner with Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, providing clinical rotations to medical students. To learn more, visit montefiorenyack.org; follow us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn and Instagram; and view us on YouTube.
About Montefiore Nyack Foundation
Established in 1985, the Montefiore Nyack Foundation is committed to fostering deep connections between the hospital and the community. Guided by our incredible Board of Trustees, the Montefiore Nyack Foundation is the fundraising arm of the Hospital. Montefiore Nyack Foundation’s mission is to build enduring relationships that promote and financially support Montefiore Nyack Hospital’s comprehensive state-of-the-art medical care, exceptional programs, and outstanding experiences for our patients and community members who rely on us as their community hospital. For more information, visit montefiorenyackfoundation.org.
About Aaliyah in Action
Our Aaliyah in Action Self-Care Packages are provided to hospitals for distribution to families who have experienced stillbirth and pregnancy loss with self-care items to help navigate life after loss. Available to order, our package items have been thoughtfully curated by asking different groups of people in this space what items helped them the most, or what they thought could have helped more, during those initial days and months of grief. Learn more at aaliyahinaction.org/.
About Adalyn Rose Foundation
The Adalyn Rose Foundation provides comprehensive and continuous support to families grieving the loss of a baby at any point during pregnancy, infancy, or early childhood. Based in Reading, Pennsylvania, The Adalyn Rose Foundation is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization. For more information, visit adalynrose.org.
About Healthy Birth Day, Inc. & Count the Kicks
Healthy Birth Day, Inc., the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that created the Count the Kicks public health campaign, has a growing network of supportive doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics that give Count the Kicks materials to their patients. Count the Kicks has been featured on “Good Morning America” and in The Washington Post and O Magazine, and produced a national PSA that has generated more than 300 million viewer impressions. The free Count the Kicks app has been downloaded more than 160,000 times in all 50 states and more than 140 countries. Learn more about their mission to save 7,500 babies every year at CountTheKicks.org.
About PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy
PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy exists for one reason, and one reason alone: to kickstart the pace of change in the U.S., using big, bold, innovative action to save as many babies’ lives as quickly as possible. We are a diverse coalition of bereaved parents from around the country, and we are working closely with trailblazing medical researchers, courageous doctors and other hardworking allies to drive down the incidence of stillbirth in the United States. Visit pushpregnancy.org for more information.
