Please join us at 2:00pm EST on Sunday, November 6th for our monthly support group! We will have three guests this month, all moms to O Warriors who either currently receive nutrition through a feeding tube or have in the past. Our theme is "Feeding Tubes 101" and we hope to provide you with the education and support required to navigate this aspect of home life as it applies to your O Warrior. Discussion will cover everything from leaving the hospital with a feeding tube to the transition to being an oral eater. As always, everyone from the omphalocele community is welcome (parents of new O babies, experienced parents with older O children, pregnant mothers or expectant family members, grandparents, friends, adult omphalocele survivors) and you are all an important part of our group!
Panelists:
Michelle DeMarco
Michelle is mom to Stephen, an amazing nearly 6 year old omphalocele warrior! Stephen struggled with feeds in the NICU and finally made it home with continuous 24hour/day feeds through a nasal-duodenal feeding tube at almost 7 months old. He's been enjoying life as a fully oral eater for almost 2.5 years now.
Lauren Collier
Lauren’s daughter Isabel was diagnosed with an omphalocele after five years of infertility, pregnancy loss, and IVF. She was advised by local doctors to terminate her pregnancy but quickly found the Mothers of Omphaloceles (MOO) support group and relocated to Philadelphia to have Isabel at CHOP. She works as a mental health therapist and is passionate about providing community support and resources to other families and brings her talent for connecting people to O Warrior. Lauren is married and lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
Heather Hollon
Heather’s son, Case, was born with an omphalocele in 2020 and since the diagnosis, she has been very involved in the omphalocele community. She has always wanted to make a bigger impact and when the opportunity to join O Warrior came up, she jumped at it. She loves sharing her learned medical knowledge, experiences, and advice with other parents to make their journey easier. Heather lives on her family cattle ranch in Kansas City, Missouri.