Terry Berggren Has Held More Than 550 Babies as a NICU Cuddler in Overland Park, Kansas, Years After His Family Lost a Grandchild
Terry Berggren, who is in his 60s, has held more than 550 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Overland Park Regional Medical Center in Kansas. He volunteers through the hospital’s Warm Arms program, which he joined in May 2023, and the hospital recently honored him with its 2026 Frist Humanitarian Award, according to a People story shared on Yahoo on Nov. 3.
His own family’s history with premature birth is part of why he does it. Berggren calls the work an “honor” that “never gets old.”
What a NICU Cuddler Does
Berggren is a Kansas-based data analyst, a dad and a grandfather. Each visit to the unit lasts a few hours, People reported. He holds babies whose parents cannot always be at the bedside.
The unit he volunteers in is a busy one. The hospital’s CEO, Matt Sogard, has called it Johnson County’s most advanced and busiest NICU, according to a 2025 hospital news release about its annual NICU reunion.
KSHB reported on Oct. 12 that Berggren had held “a little over 540” children by then. He described a sense of calm in the NICU and noted that parents often cannot be there all the time. The station quoted him calling the hospital’s award “a personal success.”
Why He Chose to Keep Showing Up
Berggren’s oldest child was born prematurely and spent time in the NICU. Later, the family lost a grandchild after a long NICU stay. People reported that he chose to keep volunteering rather than step away from it.
By his own account, he faced a choice between pulling back from the pain and confronting it in order to help other families, and he chose the second path. He also credits the volunteering with helping his mental health, and told People it leaves him calm and relaxed.
The work, he said, gives him something he needs as well as comforting the babies.
What Holding Does for Premature Babies
Dr. Rob Holcomb, the hospital’s neonatal medical director, told People that gentle touch from volunteers is an important part of NICU care. He cited research linking holding and rocking premature babies to better vital signs, oxygen levels and growth, and sometimes shorter hospital stays.
Holcomb told KSHB that human touch can stabilize babies’ vital signs and lower their oxygen requirements. He also said families remember Berggren’s presence long after they leave the NICU.
Cuddler programs exist at hospitals around the country. A 2018 Becker’s Hospital Review report said volunteers hold newborns whose parents live far away or cannot visit because of work, child care or other obligations. At UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, volunteers must commit about 100 hours, stay quiet around the babies and complete training on reading infants’ behavioral cues. Hospital staff cited in that report said the babies gain weight faster and their oxygen levels improve, although Becker’s noted those benefits came from staff observations rather than formal studies.
Why So Many Babies Need the NICU
The need is common. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 1 in 10 U.S. infants, 10.4% in 2022, were born preterm, meaning before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Babies born before 32 weeks face the highest rates of death and disability, the agency says, along with breathing and feeding difficulties.
For the babies in Overland Park, some of the comfort comes from a volunteer who has made it a regular part of his week.
More NICU families’ stories are on Parent Diaries, including how Savannah Arinder spent 57 days in the NICU and how baby Journey Ossenkopp went home after 8 months.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Realistroot – CC0/Wikimedia Commons
