A Gift in Loving Memory of Baby Silas

After the incredible care we received when our sweet son was stillborn last year, the staff at CWH and Confluence Health Foundation’s Footprints on My Heart program hold such a special place in our hearts.

On January 5, 2023, at 35 weeks pregnant, we learned that our son, Silas Franklin Pierson, no longer had a heartbeat, and he was stillborn at Central Washington Hospital on January 7, 2023. We got to spend the saddest but most meaningful 24 hours with him, and the staff at CWH took such incredible care of us and our sweet Silas, including that they made molds of his hands and feet, encouraged us to take photos with him, and sent us home with a beautiful keepsake box.

Afterward, we learned that so many of the special things the staff did for us were made possible by the Confluence Health Foundation’s Footprints on My Heart program. Because of this, when friends and family reached out to ask us if there were any causes they could donate to in honor of Silas, we made sure to mention the Confluence Health Foundation.

After we lost Silas, we also heard stories of other families who had losses like ours and the role a device called a CuddleCot played for those families, if their hospital had one available. We learned that a CuddleCot is a bassinet that keeps a deceased baby cool, giving grieving families more time with their child. As parents who only got to spend a day with our child before having to say goodbye, we know how precious every second is for parents like us who get to spend only a short time with the child they lost.

After the meaningful experience we had when Silas was born and learning that CWH did not have a CuddleCot (but that it was something they had always wanted), Silas’s grandma and grandpa felt inspired to donate the funds for a CuddleCot to the Confluence Health Foundation. Thanks to this donation, CWH now has a CuddleCot available for any families who might need it.

Even though ours is an experience we wish no parents ever had to go through, it is so special for us to know that Silas’s much-too-short little life is being honored in a way that is giving other families like ours more precious time with their sweet babies.

– Allison Int-Hout and Seth Pierson, parents to Silas Franklin Pierson