Jun 20, 2019

MERIDIAN, MS - (WTOK) - The United Way of East Mississippi visited Rush Hospital Thursday morning to drop off books for mother’s to read to their newborn children.

“When Rush reached out to us they were telling us the importance of a mother to read to the NICU babies and we have a little library at the office and so we donated about 25 books to Rush today to read to the NICU babies,” says Channing Peebles, the VP of resource development and communication at the United Way of East Mississippi. 

Studies show that if a mother reads to her newborn child, it could have a positive impact on how that child’s brain develops.

“Recently, researchers using very sophisticated techniques have found that mother’s voices are very unique to premature babies, that mother’s just reading to their babies for just 20 minutes a day show improved brain development over a period of years and years,” says Dr. Bob Blubaugh, the medical director of the NICU at Rush Health Systems.

All mothers will be able to read to their child in the NICU.

“We’re going to do everything possible to improve brain development, and part of that is going to be [is mothers] reading to their children,” Dr. Blubaugh says. “Those that are not available will have nurses reading to the babies to help with their development, but there’s something very unique about the mother’s voice that we do not understand that is very important for the brain development for babies.”

More books will be donated in the future.

“We hope to be able to send books home with every mother, so hopefully several hundred a year,” Dr. Blubaugh says. “This will be an ongoing process.”

The United Way was able to donate these books thanks to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.