Hospital makes angel gowns to comfort grieving families

CEDAR RAPIDS - For families who experience the loss of a child before or just after birth, St. Luke's Hospital employees gathered Saturday to offer comfort in the form of clothing.

At a sew-in at the St. Luke's Birth Care Center, volunteers worked to turn donated wedding gowns into 'angel gowns” intended for infant burials.

'We can make a sad situation a little less painful,” said Nancy Pruin, a medical technologist at the hospital's laboratory. 'That's my motivation.”

The national Angel Gown Program began in 2013 in Texas and now spans across the United States, Canada and Australia. The project at St. Luke's was not affiliated with the national program but was inspired by it.

'This is a way to be able to have something very special that has been from a special day, and now it has been given for a special reason for a special purpose,” said Deb Oldakowski, maternal child education coordinator for the Birth Care Center.

Since the St. Luke's project began in November, Pruin has been the sole volunteer making the gowns. She has made more than 15 in various sizes and designs. The gowns are available to parents at the hospital for no charge.

Pruin said part of her motivation was to honor her grandson, who was stillborn.

On Saturday, she had five other volunteers helping her ­- including Oldakowski and four nurses from the Birth Care Center.

One of the nurses, Jenny Zittergruen, said she too had a personal connection to the project. She gave birth to a stillborn son 24 years ago and lost a premature granddaughter four years ago.

'Personally it would have been nice to receive something like this,” she said.

Erin Chalupa, who donated the project's 12th wedding gown Saturday, said she participates in multiple charities in honor of her son, who died at 18 months old. She said the decision to part with her wedding dress was not a difficult one.

'I want to do anything to ease the pain of mothers and fathers who've lost babies because, obviously, I know how hard it is,” she said.

The group Saturday took apart five wedding dresses, sewed four angel gowns and cut out patterns for 14 gowns.

Oldakowski said the group hopes to get together several times a year to sew more gowns, and Pruin also will continue to sew them on her own.

'We started it just to kind of see what would happen, and we've had very positive results,” she said.

Learn More

To donate: To donate a wedding gown, contact Deb Oldakowski, Deb.Oldakowski@unitypoint.org

To volunteer: Contact Angela Berns, Angela.Berns@unitypoint.org