'Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep' Series Captures Parents' Final Moments With Terminally Ill Babies
Saying goodbye to a loved one is never easy, especially when it’s someone you brought into the world just a few days ago. The nonprofit organization “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” (NILMDTS) has offered to give the gift of remembrance to parents grieving the loss of their terminally ill babies by sending photographers to capture final moments at the hospital.
Cheryl Haggard, NILMDTS founder, believes these images can serve as an important step in the family’s grieving process, especially after dealing with the loss of her newborn son, Maddux Achilles Haggard, in 2005. Maddux was born with X-linked myotubular myopathy, a condition that prevents patients from breathing, swallowing, or moving on their own.
Before Maddux was taken off life support in 2005, Haggard reached out to photographer and now NILMDTS co-founder Sandy Puc to take pictures of the family cradling their son. This included photos after Maddux was off life support and “free from the tubes and the wires that had sustained him," said Haggard on the NILMDTS website.
Click "View Gallery" to see the heartbreaking moments of parents’ saying goodbye to their sick newborns.