Dothan residents Will and Lexie Gamble are working to ensure grieving parents across Alabama have more time to say goodbye to their stillborn infants, an opportunity they were largely denied after the loss of their daughter, Carter. Through their Carter’s Hope Foundation, the couple is raising money to provide specialized cooling bassinets, known as cuddle cots, to hospitals lacking this crucial equipment.
The Gambles experienced firsthand the profound impact of this absence when their daughter, Carter, was stillborn. Lexie Gamble recalled having "five minutes, maybe 10" before hospital staff had to take Carter away. She stated that, looking back, the "one thing... we could never get back, but we wish that we could, is just a few more minutes, even. To be able to just hold her.” Lexie Gamble described the difficulty of holding her "still little girl" on a labor and delivery floor where other babies were being born and families were happy and cheering, calling it "definitely the hardest part."
This limited time is not due to medical necessity or state law, but because most Alabama hospitals do not own the necessary equipment. A cuddle cot is a cooling bassinet designed to slow the natural bodily changes that occur after a baby's death. This technology allows parents to spend "hours, sometimes even days" with their child in the same room, rather than the baby being moved to a morgue. Lexie Gamble explained that it enables families to "sit there, take pictures with them, hold them, swaddle them, and just be able to grieve throughout that process."
According to the Gambles, only nine of Alabama’s 46 birthing hospitals currently have a cooling bassinet. Southeast Health in Dothan is one of the facilities equipped with this technology, its cuddle cot having been funded by the Southeast Health Foundation. Connie Colley, a bereavement coordinator at Southeast Health, highlighted another important use for the cuddle cot. She noted that some mothers are too sick to hold their baby immediately after birth, sometimes needing to go to the ICU. In such cases, Colley said, the cuddle cot has allowed the baby to accompany the mother to the unit.
Motivated by their own experience, the Gambles established Carter’s Hope Foundation. Lexie Gamble explained their motivation, asking why they should not try to give back to others what they themselves had so longed for, knowing such equipment existed. The foundation aims to place cooling bassinets in hospitals across the state, one at a time. Lexie Gamble said the foundation's main mission is to "change the outcome, change the experience" that families have.
The call for such equipment is not exclusive to grieving families. Connie Colley expressed support for legislative action, stating she "would definitely be in favor" of "any progression from a legislative standpoint." She added that such efforts would "improve the humanizing of all babies." While Texas and Louisiana have passed legislation to ensure hospitals provide this technology after a stillbirth, Alabama currently has no such law. For now, the availability of cooling bassinets in Alabama hospitals largely depends on the efforts of foundations like Carter's Hope.
The foundation continues its work to bring this vital resource to more Alabama hospitals, striving to provide other families with the gift of extended time for remembrance and grief.