Carolina Larios gently cradled her 3-day-old daughter Millie, smoothing the wings of a hand-made butterfly costume. The two celebrated Millie’s first Halloween at the Cedars-Sinai Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) last week.

 The butterfly costume, complete with wings and a tiny cap adorned with antennae, was one of more than 50 hand-made for NICU patients by volunteers for Cedars-Sinai’s Good Beginnings organization.

Good Beginnings is a support group for the NICU, providing free outreach services and programs for families and staff including weekly forums for parent-to-parent support and infant-care education opportunities.

“It’s her first Halloween,” said Larios, who gave birth to Millie when she was about 32 weeks along in her pregnancy. “It’s important to have some fun.”

Larios browsed through a selection of tiny, hand-sewn costumes custom-made by the volunteers. The batch of costumes included pumpkins, giraffes, dalbook and movie characters. The costumes are offered to any family who wants one, and the costumes are then theirs to keep.

Volunteers for the Good Beginnings program make the costumes each year for families with patients in the NICU. The volunteers, many of them who had children in the NICU themselves, say it’s important to observe holiday celebrations—even if only for a few minutes with a special costume and a photograph.

“It brings normal life into the situation for families who are going through such an unreal and stressful time,” said Dorothy Williams, a former parent liaison who has been involved with Good Beginnings since it was founded in 1979. Williams also made the butterfly costumes.  “We try to bring a little bit of joy, a little bit of a smile, and to bring them in touch with the rest of the world.”

Charles Simmons, M.D., chairman of the department of Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, praised the volunteers for their hard work on the Halloween program, and for their dedication throughout the year.

“For our tiniest patients, we not only provide the highest quality and most comprehensive medical care, but we are also sensitive to their families,” Simmons said. “This kind of support from other parents who have been there and who understand what they are going through is an important component of our care.”

The 45-bed NICU at Cedars-Sinai admits nearly 700 infants per year. The unit is staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of specialists, providing comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic services.

NICU patients receive testing procedures, medical therapies and the opportunity to participate in the clinical trials.

For more information on Good Beginnings or the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, visit www.csmc.edu.