Paying it forward

Becca Mintz was in her 27th week of pregnancy last year when she noticed that her baby had stopped kicking. She was relieved when she felt him move later that night, but the same thing happened over the next two days. After consulting other moms and a doctor friend, all of whom said it was probably nothing to worry about, Becca says she felt her “spidey sense” telling her to check it out. So she left her office at noon with just her health card and her phone and walked over to St. Michael’s Hospital.

It was one of the best decisions of her life. Becca’s son Theo wasn’t breathing when he was born early the next morning, weighing just two-and-a-half lbs. Tiny Theo ended up spending five weeks in St. Michael’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, cared for by a multidisciplinary team of experts, before Becca and her husband, Chris Doucet, were able to take him home. Now, Theo is a healthy and happy child.

“We are so grateful to St. Mike’s,” Becca says. “Our care team was incredible, and we felt like we were part of the care as well, which was really nice.”

The NICU team did more than nurse Theo back to health—they helped Becca and Chris overcome their fear about managing his care at home, without the help of 24-hour monitors and medical staff. “We had grown so accustomed to those things that we were nervous,” she admits. “But the staff were fantastic at emotionally preparing us. They did such a great job—not only in restoring Theo’s health, but in building our confidence that we could do it ourselves. It has been awesome.”

In fact, Becca and Chris were so pleased with their experience that they decided to stay with St. Mike’s for Theo’s pediatric care—and make a gift to support our NICU and Maternal Care campaign.

“It was really important to us to make a donation to St. Mike’s,” Becca says. “We were so grateful for the quality of care we received. And Theo must have been on a million dollars’ worth of machines, and we were grateful to not have to worry about that. So we knew we wanted to make a financial contribution. We feel so lucky, and we’re thankful.”