The Skylar Project

10/09/2026

Human milk is powerful medicine for our tiniest warriors. 💛

We're excited to share this episode of Healthy Mom Healthy Baby, sponsored by the Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPQC). Dr. Scott Guthrie talks with Dr. Sandra Sullivan, Medical Education Director at Prolacta Bioscience about the role of human milk in the NICU.

If you're a NICU parent, provider, or advocate in Tennessee or anywhere else, this conversation is worth your time.

🎧 Listen here: https://tipqc.org/podcast-healthy-mom-healthy-baby-tennessee/

10/07/2026

The history of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) traces back to Louis Gluck’s 1960 model, which prioritized sanitation, rapid response and centralized newborn care. Click the link in the first comment for the full story. ⬇️

📷️: Getty

10/04/2026

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. At The Skylar Project, and across the many organizations in this community, we also honor those who have lost children at any age. We leave no one behind, and we center ALL grief.

From the families I have had the privilege to serve who suffered the sudden loss of their babies, and from my own lived experience, I want to offer a few words to those who stand close to the brokenhearted.

**Be intentional.**

Whether you are a clinician providing direct care, a nonprofit leader facilitating a support group, or a family member walking beside a loved one through loss, your support must be intentional. Listen. Leave room for their lived experience and for wherever they are in their journey.

If they are angry, let them be.
If they aren't making sense, let them be.
If they are not easy to be around, let them be.

Nothing you do can stop a miscarriage, bring back a baby born sleeping, or undo the devastating loss of a toddler just learning to walk and talk. So keep your suggestions few. If they ask, and you have walked a similar road, your advice may be welcome. But never minimize their pain, and never make their cries for help about you.

All tears matter. All loss matters, no matter how different the grieving person may seem from you. There may be a language barrier, a cultural difference, a difference in skin color, or a socioeconomic gap. Stay present. Stay intentional until every question is answered.

Remember that the person living through this loss will carry these wounds for the rest of their life, with every breath they take. There will be no more memories made, no more photos of joyful moments.

You do not have to have experienced loss to rise to the occasion.

Leave no family behind. Leave no empathy behind.

💜

09/30/2026

The NICU is a world all its own. It's a place of beeping monitors and whispered prayers, of tiny hands wrapped around a parent's finger, of hope and fear living side by side. Every journey through those doors is different. Some end in homecomings, and some end in goodbyes. But every NICU family knows what it means to love a baby with everything you have while standing in the unknown.

To the families whose NICU days are behind them: whether you carried your baby home or carry them deep in your heart, your love still matters and your story still matters. May your healing continue, and may it light the way for someone just beginning their journey.

To the parents sitting bedside today: we see you. We see the long nights, the brave faces, and the strength you didn't know you had. You are doing something extraordinary. Keep going. Today, take a breath and honor all that you are, and all that you're fighting for your little one to become.

You are not alone.

With love and in solidarity,

The Skylar Project

09/26/2026

NICU REMEMBRANCE DAY 💚

Today, we remember the babies whose lives were far too short and honor the families who carry their love with them every day.

We remember their tiny lives, their beautiful stories, and the lasting impact they made.

To every bereaved NICU family: your baby is remembered, your love matters, and you are not alone. 💚

Today, we remember. Today, we honor. Today, we hold space for every family missing their baby.

09/23/2026

💜 NICU AWARENESS MONTH: FACT OR FICTION? 💜

September is NICU Awareness Month, and we're clearing up some of the biggest myths about life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Read each one and take your guess before you scroll for the answers. 👇

******

1. FICTION. Full-term babies land in the NICU too, for infection, breathing trouble, low blood sugar, or complications at birth. Prematurity is just one reason a family finds themselves there.

2. FACT. In 2023, about 9.8% of U.S. infants were admitted to a NICU and that number has been climbing. Behind every percentage point is a family whose world changed overnight.

3. FICTION. Discharge day is a milestone, not a finish line. Many families carry ongoing medical, developmental, and emotional needs home with them, which is exactly why NICU and post NICU support matters.

4. FICTION. Presence is powerful. Skin-to-skin time, pumping, reading, a gentle hand, and simply showing up makes all the difference, for baby and for the parents/caregivers.

However long your journey was, or wherever you are in it, The Skylar Project sees you. 💜

Tag a NICU family, a nurse, or a loved one who walked this road with you.

09/21/2026

I am excited to announce that I will be a speaker at the MCHD 3rd Annual Perinatal Conference, Holding Life with Care: Addressing Risks, Loss, and Resilience in the Perinatal Period. I will be sharing MY STORY, a hard, but necessary, story to tell.

Along this journey, nonprofit leadership found me; I did not go searching for it. Advocacy found me. I have always centered acts of service, creating ways to help families cope with the trauma and C-PTSD that so often follow a NICU stay, no matter its length.

I advocate for the families who too often, as Skylar did, fall through the cracks, sometimes with catastrophic outcomes that leave a scar that will never heal. It is all connected and it is all energy. I will continue her legacy in the most profound and impactful way that I can. The mistakes of others, and her traumatic death, will not define her life. I will, with that same light, grace, and unbreakable spirit she embodied.

09/21/2026

09/18/2026

We are so grateful to announce 📣

For NICU Awareness Month, Peach Cobbler Factory in Daphne is partnering with us to support NICU families, a mission that lives at the heart of everything we do.

Join us for Spirit Day Friday, September 25th. A portion of every sale goes directly to The Skylar Project, helping us provide resources and comfort to families in their hardest moments.

Every treat is an act of kindness for a family who needs it. Dine in, take out, or order delivery on GrubHub, Uber Eats & DoorDash, it all makes a difference. 🍑

📍 Peach Cobbler Factory · 6880 Hwy 90, Daphne, AL 36526
Thank you for standing with us. 💛