Parents Mourn Stillborn Baby, Then Discover Their Hospital Bills Have Been Paid For.

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After losing a loved one, the last thing you want to think about is hospital bills. This fact is especially true if you’ve lost a baby who never even had a chance to live.

Randy and Rebekka Hauskin know the heartbreak of losing a child to stillbirth all too well. The couple lost their daughter Hayden when Rebekka was 32 weeks pregnant – the devastation almost broke them. Even though they knew that Hayden had passed away in utero, Rebekka still had to endure a grueling 14-hour labor to deliver their baby girl. “When you’re pregnant and your baby passes, you still have to go through the delivery,”Randy told ABC News. “You need to make a lifetime of decisions in a really short period of time.â€


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Still reeling from grief, the couple was making funeral arrangements when the arrival of a $1,000 hospital bill reopened the wound before it even had a chance to heal.

Randy paid $77 towards the bill each month, and every payment brought back waves of pain that no parent should have to endure. “It was something he had to consciously write a check for every month – no matter if it was a year later,” Rebekka recalled. “It hurt every time.”


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After some time had passed, Rebekka felt a calling to help others who had suffered the same traumatic experience as she and her family. She says she felt obligated to help; although nothing could heal the wound of losing a child to stillbirth, maybe they could take away the sting of having to pay the hospital bills for them.

The couple got together with some of their close friends and created a charity called Hayden’s Helping Hands.


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“We came up with the basis to pay $1,000 towards every delivery bill for stillborn babies because our bill was $1,000,”Rebekka said. Incredibly, the organization has already paid the hospital bills of 44 families in Oregon and Washington. Their goal is to someday take the charity nationwide.


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Aside from the financial service they provide, the organization also aims to serve as a remembrance for the infants who passed away.

Grieving parents often want an acknowledgment that their child lived, however briefly – that they simply existed. Hayden’s Helping Hands provides that by recognizing each baby by name.

Brian Paulsen is one father who received help from the nonprofit after he and his wife lost their daughter Alexis in 2012. Brian told Today that “the most important thing that Hayden’s Helping Hands does is to put my little girl’s name in writing. Hayden’s Helping Hands tells the world Alexis existed, and it is vastly therapeutic to see her name at their events.”


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Rebekka and Randy have certainly helped many families take a step towards healing from a tremendous loss, but they remain humble about their efforts. “What we’ve done is very small in comparison to the loss that they’ve had,”Rebekka said. “For us, it’s about saying, ‘I know you had a baby and I recognize your loss.’ No one wants to acknowledge grief, but it’s important.â€

Share this story to spread the word about this fantastic organization and the love they’re creating in the world.

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