You could say that the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at St.Vincent Women’s Hospital was Cathleen’s first home. After all, she lived there for eight months. When she moved in – the day she was born - she weighed only one pound, seven ounces. She also put quite a scare into her mom, Barbara, because she was delivered at only 24 weeks’ gestation.

Today, Cathleen is 20 years old, and premature babies don’t typically have to stay quite as long in the NICU these days. But Barbara remembers the events like they happened yesterday.

Barbara called her doctor to report that she had been feeling some discomfort. Because he knew that Barbara had gone into labor prematurely in a previous pregnancy, he instructed her to meet him at St.Vincent. It didn’t take long to determine that Barbara was in labor. Cathleen was born by caesarean section in order to give her the best chance of survival.

As soon as she was delivered, the hospital staff dedicated themselves to Cathleen’s care. During her stay, she got plenty support from a loving mom and dad. She also received lots of help learning to eat, breathe, and grow from the NICU doctors and nurses.

“They were so informative,” says Barbara. “She had the same nurses all the time, so there weren’t a lot of different faces. They would always take the time to let us know how she did during the night. They took pictures of her every day and wrote little notes from Cathleen.”

The months passed, and eventually Cathleen left for her new, permanent home. “I felt she had a lot of mothers,” remembers Barbara. “I think they really missed her when she left.”

Not long ago, on the day Cathleen graduated from high school, among the proud moms and dads in the audience were two special guests in attendance – nurses who cared for Cathleen back when she was a newborn.