Join us at 2:00pm EST on Sunday, October 1st for our monthly support group meeting! We will be welcoming an entire panel of O parents who have been through the NICU experience with their O babies, and they will be sharing about the challenges that come along with living in the NICU, balancing family life, and caring for themselves, all while overseeing the care of their newborn O babies. We will also be welcoming back Wendy Hurwitz, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and the coordinator for the Fragile Beginnings program at the Center for Early Relationship Support in Waltham, MA. Wendy’s special interest and expertise includes helping new parents connect with their newborns while navigating a challenging start to life. 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:
Wendy Hurwitz, LMHC, PMH-C
Wendy Hurwitz, LMHC, PMH-C is the coordinator for the Fragile Beginnings program at the Center for Early Relationship Support at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Waltham, MA. Wendy’s special interest and expertise includes helping new parents to connect with their newborns while navigating a challenging start, including a stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In addition, Wendy’s professional focus includes providing therapeutic support to parents whose perinatal mental health complications are interfering with their relationships with their babies. Wendy has advanced training in Infant-Parent Mental Health and holds a certification in Perinatal Mental Health through Postpartum Support International. She is also trained in Circle of Security-Parenting, an evidence-based parent education curriculum.
Savannah Lessei
Savannah is a stay at home mom to her son Ezekiel, who was born with a giant omphalocele containing liver and bowel. Ezekiel spent 17 days in the NICU and has his omphalocele repaired at 16 months old. He is almost 2 years olf now and is absolutely thriving! Savannah is an advocate for mother-baby bonding and attachment in the NICU and throughout infancy.
Alejandro & Riley Pfister
Alejandro and Riley are a military family that currently reside in Orange County, CA. Alejandro works for the Marine Corps and Riley is working on her masters in Mental Health Counseling while staying home with their two babies, Nico (2) & Naomi (4 months). Their oldest, Nico, was born with a giant omphalocele along with three VSD’s and pulmonary hypoplasia. He spent two months in the NICU before being sent home. He underwent a hernia repair at 6 months old and recently had full closure of his omphalocele at 22 months old. He spent about 15 months involved in both occupational and physical therapy to help keep him on track developmentally. Nico’s O journey felt as though it lasted a lifetime but in reality in went by in the blink of an eye. He is now a happy, healthy, and extremely energetic 2 year old!
Kanisha Weeks
Kanisha is 29 years old and mother to Kamira, who was diagnosed with her ompahlocele at Kanisha’s 20 week anatomy scan. Kamira’s care was immediately transferred to the local children’s hospital (University of Iowa Stead family) about 30 minutes away from where they live. Once Kanisha’s MFM confirmed the diagnosis, Kanisha underwent an amniocentesis and and Kamira’s results came back normal. Kanisha delivered at 39 weeks via C-section. Kamira spent 5 months in the NICU. She will turn 2 years old in November and is a healthy young girl. She was primarily fed by g-tube but started feeding therapy in July 2023 and is doing amazing eating by mouth. Kamira had her initial closure at a few days old and will eventually have her final closure surgery around 2-3 years old.
