Christmas Newborns Sent Home In Red Stockings At Magee-Women’s Hospital [Photos]
The Magee-Women’s Hospital at the University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania, sent parents home on Christmas Day with the best Christmas gifts they could get: their Adorable Christmas newborns in red Christmas stockings.
The newborn babies were bundled in tiny red Christmas stockings and hand-knitted hats as keepsakes, according to ABC News.
The parents of these newborns have certainly received the best stocking stuffers of the Christmas season. Of all Christmas gifts parents could receive, nothing beats their own adorable new arrivals.
The staff at UPMC snapped and shared photos on the hospital’s Facebook page of the newborns ready to go home with their parents as special Christmas gifts bundled in Christmas stockings. The hospital also shared photos showing the group of community volunteers who knitted the stockings and hats for the newborns.
The hospital’s Facebook page says that the women volunteers are known at the hospital as “Magee Knitters.”
“If you’ve walked through the Magee lobby recently, you may have noticed a group of women surrounded by construction tape. Known as the “Magee Knitters”, the group started in September 2014 with a mission to make caps for the newborn babies at the hospital. (193 and counting!) This past week, Dena Chottiner, Chris Piccioni, and Bernie Koval were finishing up the holiday caps!
“Of course, they’re always happy to welcome new members, so next time you’re in the neighborhood, swing by the Magee Knitters station!”
The Magee Knitters had knitted nearly 200 hats for newborns by Tuesday, December 23. Nurses at the hospital have maintained the tradition for several years, the hospital said.
According to the Magee-Women’s Hospital website, more than 10,000 babies are born at the hospital every year, about 45 percent of all births in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
The hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is the largest in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the largest in the entire country, treating more than 1,500 critically ill infants every year.
But the Magee-Women’s Hospital is not the only hospital in the U.S. that sent parents home with their precious newborns as special stocking stuffers on Christmas Day. Other hospitals that also sent newborns home on Christmas Day in Christmas stockings include the Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which has been sending new arrivals home in stockings for 36 years, according to the Daily Mail.
The Kettering Medical Center in Ohio, the Redlands Community Hospital in California, and the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach, California, have maintained the tradition of sending Christmas newborns home in red stockings for years.
The practice lapsed for some years at Redlands Community Hospital before it was revived again in 2005, according to BuzzFeed.
