Project designs for deceased infants
By Peter N. Long
The Daily Cardinal
Last spring, the instructors of Environment, Textiles and Design course number 501 set out to accomplish what few college courses strive to achieve: education through community service.
Titled \Threads of Remembrances: Infant Bereavement,"" ETD 501 was a joint effort between Meriter Hospital and the Textile and Apparel Design program of the UW Human Ecology department, aimed at utilizing the skills of UW-Madison students to help grieving parents better cope with the loss of their premature infant.
Dubbed the ""Meriter Project"" by the TAD students and instructors, participants in the class pooled their respective skills to create patterns for ""baby gowns,"" garments specifically tailored to the under-developed proportions of premature infants, the delicate features preexisting patterns were neither designed to fit or protect.
UW-Madison student Monica Barnett, currently a senior in the Textile and Apparel Design program, was a member of the original ""Threads of Remembrances"" course, and explained that Meriter Hospital turned to the faculty of the School of Human Ecology to initiate a program designed to create patterns for baby gowns that could be used in Madison and other hospitals around the world.
""[Meriter Hospital] needed patterns for the gowns because when babies pass away before, during or right after birth, most of their proportions are not the size of normal babies,"" Barnett said.
Since the Meriter Project began, the Textile and Apparel Student Association has assisted in orchestrating ""sewing days"" to assume the duties of creating individual baby gowns for parents from the patterns initially designed by the ETD 501 class, as part of the association's commitment to community service.
Sonja Nesse, current head of public relations for TASA and a junior majoring in Apparel Design at UW-Madison, said she is proud of her involvement with the Meriter Project because it allows her to use her design skills to improve the lives of parents touched by tragedy.
""We've made a difference with the Meriter Project, and we've seen the positive effect that it has had on the lives of parents who have lost a child... how could you stop once you've experienced that?"" Nesse said.
The positive emotional value the gowns have given grieving parents is certainly something no one involved with the Meriter Project would ever attempt to dispute.
""Many parents have stressed that it really meant a lot to them that someone had actually taken the time to hand-make this garment for them,"" Barnett said. ""The fact that it was an original garment that was specifically made for them to keep as a remembrance [of their baby] was really important to them.\
