Camden charity aids premature babies, mothers

When Nancy Eisenhower went into labor, her due date was 17 weeks away.

Her daughter, Nia, entered the world that December day with her eyelids fused, and with a shot at survival that doctors estimated at 7 percent. She was so small the nurses could fit her in one hand.

Nia would spend five months in the neonatal intensive-care unit at Cooper University Hospital with her 29-year-old mother sitting nearby, waiting for permission to hold her newborn.

During those days taking the bus back and forth to the Camden hospital, the Oaklyn resident could not find work to replace her previous job as a telemarketer. So when it came time to take Nia home in May, Eisenhower was relieved to find that a nurse in the neonatal unit had formed a charity to supply the materials needed to care for an infant, and the fund provided Nia with diapers, formula and wipes.

"They didn't just help with material things," Eisenhower said of the neonatal unit staff. "They helped me grow as a mother, as a person."

The charity, Clare's Cupboard, grew out of a donation that nurse Pat Pearlman received days before Christmas from a couple who were grateful their daughter, Clare, had survived her premature birth.

It was an unexpected blessing for Pearlman, who was overseeing the discharge of a premature infant to a 17-year-old mother lacking money and supplies and living in an unstable situation.

Like many Cooper nurses, Pearlman had often spent her own money on baby supplies during her 20 years at the hospital. But with her and her neonatologist husband scheduled to work throughout the holidays, she was unsure how they would get this teenager everything she needed to care for herself and her baby.

When the parents, who don't want their names publicized, called Cooper to donate $500 to a premature baby and its mother, they were put in touch with Pearlman. Pearlman's children used half the money to buy supplies for the teen mother, and the rest was saved for a future mother in need.

These gifts are crucial for mothers suddenly needing to provide care to a premature baby, Pearlman said.

"Not only are our babies premature," she said. "So are our families. They're not ready to be parents."

Parents of babies born early have not always bought things for the baby, and family and friends who don't know whether to congratulate them or express concern can create tension, she said.

The fund, made an official Cooper charity in March, received a boost when the Moorestown Auxiliary to the Cooper Health System donated $10,000 from a May benefit.

"It was something new and something the hospital really needed to get going," chapter president Janet Khalafalla said. "The hospital's able to give them something to at least get the baby started."

So far, Clare's Cupboard has provided 12 mothers with at most $250 worth of supplies, selected by the nurses.

The most expensive purchase is typically a $85 combination playpen and changing table, though that price was rivaled by that of a dual stroller given to Laura Piña for the discharge of her twin sons yesterday.

Piña, 27, said she would not have been able to buy the stroller, which she needed to transport the twins with her five other children around her neighborhood in East Camden.

"It was a little hard because before I was only taking one home, but now two," she said in Spanish.

About half the babies who have received supplies were born premature; the rest were recommended by other nurses and doctors. All the mothers must be registered with the federal Women, Infants and Children program to ensure they are already receiving aid, Pearlman said.

The donations of Clare's Cupboard are often needed to fill the gap for mothers at Cooper, she said.

"This is Camden," she said. "It's nothing new."

Mothers who cannot afford the basic tools of child care will resort to extremes, including watering down formula, Pearlman said.

"If we don't provide these things, we have families who have nothing," she said.

In coming years, Pearlman hopes to enlist manufacturers and retailers to provide discounted merchandise.

Donations to Clare's Cupboard can be sent in care of the Cooper Foundation, 1 Cooper Plaza, Camden, N.J. 08103.