Faith & Family Live!

Faith & Family Live is where everyday moms offer one another inspiration, support, and encouragement in Catholic living. Anyone grappling with the meaning of life or the cleaning of laundry is welcome here. Read the blog, check out our magazine, join our community, learn more about our mission, and come on in! READ MORE

Bloggers

Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!

Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is editor-in-chief of Catholic Digest and Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her …
Read My Posts

Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
Read My Posts

Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com and the author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also enjoys speaking around the country, is employed as webmaster for her parish web sites and spends time on various …
Read My Posts

Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
Read My Posts

Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
Read My Posts

Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from …
Read My Posts

DariaSockey

DariaSockey
Daria Sockey is a freelance writer and veteran of the large family/homeschooling scene. She recently returned home from a three-year experiment in full time outside employment. (Hallelujah!) Daria authored several of the original Faith&Life Catechetical Series student texts (Ignatius Press), and is currently a Senior Writer for Faith&Family magazine. A latecomer …
Read My Posts

Guest Bloggers

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
Read My Posts

Lynn Wehner

Lynn Wehner
As a wife and mother, writer and speaker, Lynn Wehner challenges others to see the blessings that flow when we struggle to say "Yes" to God’s call. Control freak extraordinaire, she is adept at informing God of her brilliant plans and then wondering why the heck they never turn out that …
Read My Posts

Stay in the Loop with F&F

?
Full feed
Danielle Bean’s feed
Rebecca Teti’s feed
Arwen Mosher’s feed
Lisa Hendey’s feed
Rachel Balducci’s feed

Get our FREE Daily Digest

Add Faith & Family to iTunes

Weekly Reader Poll

 

Recent Comments

Top Tags

discussion | advice | coffee talk | christmas | parenting | school | education | homeschool | benedict xvi | children | marriage | sex | nfp | couples | fertility | open forum | homemaking | wife | husband | twelve days of christmas | family | sharing | laundry | teach | cleaning | learn | fun | humor | procreation | prayer | faith | advent | relationships | pro-life | video | thanksgiving | teens | the gist | housekeeping | recipes | catholictv | challenges | love | abortion | choices | food | music | questions | mass | encouragement | travel | podcast | babies | television | cookies | experiences | history | israel | marianne stokes | art | exercise | traditions | news | health | catholicism | baking | spouse | bishops | tissot | links | discussions | religion | fashion | teaching | new years | pilgrimage | nutrition | stories | epiphany | tv | moms | joy | shopping | religious liberty | mothering | columns | poetry | new evangelization | ideas | holidays | jesus | time | sweet | resolutions | feast | vocation | etiquette | angels | charity | winter |

Previous What Are You Making for the Super Bowl? Home I Believe in Love Next

Knowing Your Health Care Options

Do you have a local children's hospital?

Posted by Lisa Hendey in Health on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 7:12 PM

Yesterday, I went on a “mom field trip” to visit my new friend Genevieve who has the enviable job of “Social Media Coordinator” at our regional children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital of Central California.  In her newly created position, Genevieve is using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to better educate the families of the Central Valley about her hospital, but more importantly about health care in general.  This is one cool lady, doing a fantastic job that will impact lots of families living in our valley.

During our tour of the NICU, Genevieve and I spent some time talking about how we wished we had been more educated about our health care options during our pregnancies.  I must admit that I gave absolutely no consideration to that horrible “what if” question and would have been completely unprepared had my boys needed neonatal intensive care services.  I thought about strollers, clothing, and a car seat, but not about what I would have done if one of my babies needed immediate treatment following his birth.  One of the things that is great about Genevieve’s new job is that she will have a voice to help new and first time moms think about these types of things before they actually might need to make a decision.

Strolling through the NICU and seeing the care being given to those tiny little treasures made my heart swell.  No mother wants to see her newborn preemie hooked up to equipment, but thankfully there are places like the Children’s Hospital of Central California where skilled and dedicated doctors and nurses are ready and waiting to help our children.

Do you have a local children’s hospital?  Have you—during your pregnancies or even now that you have children—given any thought to where you would go in the event of a health care emergency or crisis in your family?  Let’s say a prayer today, on the Feast of St. Blaise, for all of those providing health care services to our families.

Comments
6
Filed under babies, health care, hospitals, pregnancy

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Christina on Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010 11:10 PM (EDT):

I used to live 15 minutes from a fantastic children’s hospital but luckily never needed it. Now I live 300 miles from one and I REALLY hope that I don’t need it. Any emergency medical care that requires a children’s hospital or specialty health services involves a helicopter ride. I haven’t given much thought to it except to think that if my child needed to be there I would either have to get an apartment and live away from the rest of my children, or only visit the hospitalized child once or twice a month. I hope to God I will never have to be in that position.

 
Posted by Arwen Mosher on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 12:26 AM (EDT):

We live about fifteen minutes from the nearby large university’s children’s hospital. It’s where Blaise stayed last year when he was sick. I hope we won’t need it again, but I’m very grateful that it’s there.

 
Posted by Claire on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 8:14 AM (EDT):

There are three hospitals in my area that have NICUs.  If I were to carry a pregnancy to term, I would definitely deliver at one of those.  The problem with delivering a a hospital that doesn’t have a NICU is that first of all there is no neonatologist on staff to stablize the baby if there’s a problem, and if the baby requires transfer to a hospital with a NICU, the insurance won’t pay for the mother to transfer.  So the mother and baby end up being separated.

 
Posted by Lucy on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 10:57 AM (EDT):

I’m delivering my 2nd baby at the only hospital that has a level III NICU. While I’m hoping I don’t need it (I’m 37 weeks, so the likelihood is definitely low), I am glad that it is there. And the best children’s hospital in the country, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is just about 45 minutes away, should we ever need it.

 
Posted by Lisa Hendey on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 12:10 PM (EDT):

Sounds as though you ladies have much more foresight than I had.  That’s great!!

 
Posted by Diane on Friday, Feb 5, 2010 12:14 PM (EDT):

Having three healthy babies, never dreamed of how a family’s life can be that has sick child.  When my daughter did get sick (she was spitting up blood), we were in an out of the Cleveland Clinic for almost a year before we found out the problem.  The social worker and Ronald McDonald’s presence in the hospital help us sooo much and we were so very grateful for them!!


Post a Comment

By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.

Name:

Email:

Website:

I am commenting on the one originally posted by the author

Write your comment:

Please enter the word you see in the image below:


     

Remember my personal information.

Notify me of follow-up comments.

Previous What Are You Making for the Super Bowl? Home I Believe in Love Next