SwedishAmerican takes part in Babies with Books national read-a-thon

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Seeing your child in the NICU may be one of the most difficult things a parent may face. But SwedishAmerican Hospital is making it easier for parents to connect with their little miracles.

The hospital is taking part in the Babies with Books national read-a-thon competition, which started on Monday. It encourages families to read with their babies. Keily Zimmerman was 25 weeks pregnant when their daughter was born in June. The Zimmerman’s said they didn’t have any children’s books before she was born, so they are very grateful for SwedishAmerican.

“Reading really helps the baby with their brain development and with hearing mom’s voice because they’re supposed to be inside the belly but they came early. So that helps with all of that," said Zimmerman. "But personally, I love reading. So it’s an exciting opportunity to compete with other people and get excited about reading and have Eliana, our daughter, get excited about reading from the beginning.”

SwedishAmerican is building a NICU book library so that the hospital always has books available for parents to read to their babies and help with their development.

For more information on the contest, you can visit https://www.babieswithbooks.org/readathon.

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