In the city of Boston, Mass, lives a woman known as the "baby whisperer." Enny Wiederhold , an 81-year-old with curly brown hair and a confident gait, is a highly-valued volunteer and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The Boston Globe reports "Three times a week, she drives from her home in Winchester to the hospital, where she stays for hours, stroking and holding prematurely born babies so fragile they sometimes stay in the hospital for months after their birth. Her job is to lull babies to sleep when their parents cannot be there, because they work, have other children, or live far from the hospital.
It is a job Wiederhold took on more than 15 years ago, when she came to the hospital bored with retirement and eager to use the skills she honed over 15 years as a nurse, even if it meant working as a volunteer.
Doctors have long known that quieting and stroking a crying baby has powerful benefits for their health. When babies, especially premature ones, cry, they waste energy that otherwise can be used to build their young bodies. Cradling babies comforts them and helps quiet and lull them."
Add a lullaby to this and you have one happy, serene baby!
