GREENSBORO, N.C. – When you walk into the NICU at Cone Health Women’s Hospital, you may find a loving, gray-haired ‘Paw-Paw’ sitting on a recline chair holding a newborn.
He’s the NICU’s ‘Manny,” that’s man + nanny, the first man to join the team of volunteers that provide comfort and human touch to the fragile newborns in the unit.
“I just wanted to give back, to pay it forward, help the babies get a good start in life and give them the sort of loving they need because I got a lot of extra love I can give,” Ron Simpson, a Vietnam Veteran and grandfather of five, explained.
The NICU is a quiet, but busy department in the hospital.
Nurses run up and down caring for all the babies in the unit which leaves them little time to hold and touch the ones that aren’t in need of immediate care.
“Often times we are in a role where we have to do other tasks and we have other babies we’re responsible for and we can’t just it and hold babies,” Cathy Marreiros, Staff Nurse at the NICU in the Women’s Hospital, explains.
The NICU Nannies Program trains volunteers to cuddle and hold the newborns while parents aren’t around.
“The human contact can’t be replaced,” Marreiros said. “Our nannies are actually here, they have the time, they volunteer time and energy to come and hold them and sit for extended periods of time.”
Simpson says he enjoys talking to the newborns, humming to them, praying over them.
“And sometimes I sing real low to them because I don’t want to scare them,” he jokes.
Simpson says the most rewarding part of being a volunteer is the babies’ reaction to the love and care they provide.
“When the baby snuggles up to you and you get them to calm down,” Simpson said. “Just the feeling you get to know you’re making a difference in their life.”
According to Simpson, those who know him agree he suffers from PTSD, and that the comfort he provides to the NICU babies also comforts him.
“It just gives me this good feeling at the end of the day, it’s hard to explain, but it gives me a calm along with giving them one too,” Simpson said.
The NICU Manny hopes to continue volunteering for as long as he can.
As for the nickname, he attributes it to Ginger Penley, Director of Volunteer Services for Cone Health.
“She said, ‘We won’t call you nanny, but you can be our NICU many,” Simpson said.
To learn more about the NICU Team at Cone Health, visit their website.