We have a special blog feature today! Susan Huebner isn't just Parker Baby's co-founder Sam's mom - she's the founder of Nurturing Newborns, a business committed to support families in need.

We love Nurturing Newborn's mission, and wanted to share it with you today! Watch this video for more information on what they do:

To learn more about Nurturing Newborns, we asked Susan Huebner a few questions. Here are her answers!

What Services Do You Provide?

Nurturing Newborns provides respite care in the homes of special families. Usually our families have an infant or a toddler who has delays, disabilities, were born prematurely, or have serious illness.

We do short term services caring for the children so parents can rest, take a break, seek mental health support, or spend time with other family members.

What is Respite Care?

Respite care is a short term service that gives families, parents, and foster parents a chance to take a break and take care of themselves. When we provide respite care for infants and toddlers, the family can rejuvenate, regenerate, and take some time to care for themselves - which leads to healing for the whole family!

What Kind of Families Do You Serve?

We serve families that are in some sort of crisis or need a helping hand. A lot of our families don't have a good support system close by.

Our families typically have needs in their home because their child has delays, disabilities, or illness. Sometimes we serve families in which the parent has a serious illness too. They may have a cancer diagnosis or surgery recovery, and they are really struggling to care for their little ones. That's where we come in.

How Do You Find Funding?

None of our families pay out of pocket for respite care. We are thankful to partner with community organizations, foundations, and other nonprofits that support children to fund respite.

Many of our families could not afford our services, and so we are really fortunate to be able to use the community resources to pay for respite care for our families. 

What is Your Favorite Part of What You Do?

There are so many things that are special to me! I think watching families heal is my favorite. Watching families relationships are stronger. Watching the relationship between my staff, respite providers and the children, infants, toddlers, and parents grow their trust between each other. Watching amazing families who are in a really hard situation do amazing things is incredible.

It's hard for me to write about it without getting teary because I am so impressed with families that are faced with obstacles! Watching their child with disabilities or delays gain strength and courage - it's amazing to watch.

Who Refers Families to Nurturing Newborns?

We are fortunate to partner with a lot of other providers in the Denver community and surrounding areas.

We typically partner with social workers, home health nurses, and medical providers in finding families in need. They might come across a family they see that is really struggling. These providers will give us a call and tell us a family would really benefit from respite.

We work closely with those referral sources to learn more about the family and if we would be a good fit for that family.

Who Are Your Respite Providers & What Do They Do?

My staff of respite providers is comprised of people who have worked in early childhood. Some have been medical providers. Some have been social workers.

They are all people who have a passion to support families with little ones. When they meet a family, they work together with the parents initially so the parents can feel really comfortable with their care. Then they'll provide support, care for their child's feeding, changing, and sleep, so the parents can feel comfortable.

We are not medical providers, but we do care for children who are using oxygen. Occasionally, if they have a feeding tube, we can administer that. But all of my providers receive specific training in the care and needs of these special infants and toddlers.

How Do You Schedule Respite & How Long Are You In Homes?

Following an initial intake after making sure we're the right fit for a family, we assign a provider. That provider works directly with the family to schedule respite.

A common schedule would be about two afternoons a week. We don't provide full time services, but we provide part time services parents can schedule in advance.

We stay with the family until each family feels comfortable being on their own, or they've come through a hard time and they're ready to move forward. How long we stay with a family varies.

Our respite providers become very close to their families. We work hard to keep one provider in the home so the family gets used to one provider and the children know that one safe person. We think that's very important to develop relationships.

At The End of the Day, What is Your Mission?

Our ultimate goal at Nurturing Newborns and through respite care is to strengthen the parent-child relationship.

We believe parents are the experts on the care of their children. We follow their lead. We focus on being very parent-directed, so parents feel like they have control. We want to increase their competence and we want to provide quality care of their whole family.

Support Nurturing Newborns

Thank you for everything you do Susan (as well as her respite team)!

If you want to support Nurturing Newborns, they take donations of any amount on their website, and every dollar goes to supporting families in the Denver metro area who are in need. Donate here!

Before you go, make sure to check out our Parker Baby Co. bestsellers - you won't want to walk the mom journey without them!

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