Every day, in hospitals all across the country, thousands of newborn babies are delivered into the waiting arms of their loving parents. In most cases it is only a few hours after the birth before these parents and their new bundles of joy are home enjoying a happy ending to nine months of waiting, hoping and planning. Unfortunately, not every family has such a happy ending.
In some cases a newborn child may be forced by some medical condition to remain in the hospital for an extended amount of time. Some of these babies may have been born prematurely and weigh less than three pounds. Some may have parents who are drug addicts and have come into this world already suffering from drug withdrawal. No matter what the reason, there is one thing that each of these newborns needs to help nurture their development into healthy, secure children. That one thing is simple human affection and attention, and that is where "The Cuddlers" come in.
Cuddlers are hospital volunteers. They come in all shapes and sizes and from all tracks of life; high school kids, great-grandmothers, even retired truck drivers, all are willing to donate their time and their tenderness to holding, rocking and soothing the infant children who would otherwise spend hours alone and untouched. It isn't that these children are being intentionally neglected, most of them have loving, doting parents, but the rigors of an extended stay can wear on a family; physically, mentally and financially. Sometimes it just isn't possible for parents to be with their newborns 24/7, and the doctors and nurses of the hospital are sometime too busy to give the little ones more than the necessary medical care they need. Their constant attention and affection help to ensure that each newborn is given the chance to develop normally.
Over the past twenty years, more and more information has pointed to the importance of early human touch on the development of children. A newborn child's brain is a mass of billions and billions of nerve cells. Each of these cells eventually grow and connect to ultimately control such various functions as seeing, hearing and motor skills, as well as emotional expression and cognitive skills. All of these functions can be stunted through the lack of appropriate stimulation, and this is what makes Cuddlers so important to a newborn's future.
Of course cuddling isn't only beneficial to the little babies. One Cuddler, a professional firefighter by trade, finds her time with the newborns to be a calming respite from a stressful job. In fact volunteers find the experience of cuddling the infants to be so enriching and soothing that most cuddling programs have long waiting lists. "We have forty volunteers, just waiting for an opening," says Dora Soldatenko, a volunteer service specialist for The Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. "And it isn't easy to become a Cuddler. They have to undergo a background check and two orientation training sessions, but once they get in they just keep coming back."
To learn more about volunteering as a Baby Cuddler, call your local hospital and ask to speak with their volunteer services department. 
