European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 8, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Loving Contact Volunteer cuddlers1 july 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17  by Jim Mcelroy associated press Kenia Metzner visited the University of new Mexico Hospital daily to spend time with her son during the first three months of his now she returns once a week to cud dle other premature or critically ill i guess its my Way of thanking the lord for pulling my son through for she Metzner is one of 33 Volunteer cuddles who provide Loving Contact the tiny babies otherwise might not cuddles Rock the sing to talk to they change their diapers and feed they walk around with the tiny patients who Arent attached to gently stroke the ones too sick to be taken from its very calming for the babies to be says Joan the social worker who supervises the innovative research has shown the babies grow better with human she says the hospitals intensive care Newborn unit is the Only one of its kind in new we get All the Prema Ture All the sick babies from around the but Many parents cant spend much time in Albuquerque be Volunteer cuddle Ruth Forman holds a premature 3monthold a photo Erm Bombeck the most creative fiction being written today in this country is never its authors never appears on talk give Magazine interviews or make big deals with the paperback their work is confined to a Small Post card sent from their vacation to the folks Back i have never read a Post card where the people were not having the most wonderful time of their lives and were sick that you were not there to share in their Cesta the front of the card May Bear a picture of a hotel room that is too depressing to commit suicide in or a Lake that features raw but you flip it Over and the writer having a marvelous Wheater food never want to come we tour paper clip love and who has not received cards they Pray their Post Man has been too Busy to examine we always get at least one from a Friend who sends a topless native with arrows and a note does this remind you of Bernice after two martinis i am not a postcard but i married this who has not written his Only sister in 20 will pore Over Racks of Post cards for ignoring hanging Majestic prehistoric burial spacious skies and Amber Waves of he will continue to shuffle through the Matching up the belly dancer to the office ruins to one of the kids a statue with one Arm missing to his i once tugged at his Arm and begged him to watch a child being cured in a Miracle Bath in South cause of jobs or other children at and nurses Are too Busy to hold a baby for a few Newman that was the concept behind the program getting started a Little Over four years she it was unique to us when we started we didst read about it somewhere else and decide to do the program was the idea of Ginny an occupational therapist at he what were finding from the research is that its real important for the baby mental health and physical development that the environment be responsive to the baby she for if a baby becomes upset and starts then the baby is telling us it has a its real important to have a human being responsive to that need by picking up the this the babies learn they have a Mastery Over their own Munsick Bruno says that parents Are now assured their babies Are getting Loving attention when they cant be once upon a the babies were sort of kept isolated behind Glass and nobody handled says Alfred a paediatrics professor at the University of new Mexico school of Medicine and the husband of a then parents were allowed to come i is a step beyond i think this is going to catch on throughout the the part of the hospitals Volunteer service has grown steadily since its inception and new Man never has had to recruit i get them from word of she we have two the rest Are All there Are House working they find it Reward they feel they Are doing something worthwhile and they see the immediate benefits from Metzner says she saw the benefits of cuddling while her now was at the we were Lucky that we lived in Albuquerque and could be there every she i Felt my son had done so Well because his grandparents and his parents were in there every Day to give him the there were things that we would do like stroke his Arm that to this Day he still likes us to she it seems he was aware of a Good thing even though lie was that she says she noticed while spending time at the Hospital with Scott that other babies did not have their families around As the Parent of a baby in that unit i had seen the she that Why after my son got out and i talked to i decided to do Flormann retired nurse Ruth says she first heard of the program at a party two Days after she and her husband moved to Albuquerque from new i went to work on monday and Ive been doing it for almost four she i guess i do it because there is a big Florman says she believes her training As a grand Mother is More important than her training As a anybody who loves kids can do she Metzner says it can be a Shock for a new Volunteer who has never seen such a unit because of All the tubes and wires and because the babies Are so i had time to she it amazes they jump right in and do the cuddles also must face which the women say can be Tough to it int says who always is on Call to hold babies who Are theres a lot of tears but you cant not do its important to us that a baby not die Metzner says the program also is Good for the the feeling of really doing something to help a Small child makes you feel she its rather selfish but sometimes i think the cuddles get More out of it than the its just a very Loving and he pulled away and How do you spell Walter Cronkite last name once he gets started the literary juices they spill right out in tiny illegible script on the message Side to the address with arrows pointing Over to the front and continuing in a circulator my favorite card was one i picked off the across the front of the card was raising hell in there was a picture of a 1937 car parked in front of the plastic Flowers around the War a Man pitching Horese hoes and a dog at the bus station waiting for something to i didst Send i didst want anyone to know i was c los Angeles times Syndicate