Chaplaincy Services: Spiritual Care
While in the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit (N/IICU), you and your baby may be visited by someone from the Chaplaincy Service.
What does a chaplain do for families and babies in the N/IICU?
Chaplains provide spiritual care to patients, families and staff in the N/IICU. Spiritual care includes prayers, rituals, sacraments and practices of individual faith groups. It also includes assisting with the questions of meaning, hope and suffering that arise when a child is ill. Spiritual care extends beyond the scope of religious expression — to the universal spiritual needs we all share.
How can chaplaincy services help me support my baby?
A chaplain can:
- Provide for the prayers, rituals and sacraments of your faith group. This may include such things as lighting Shabbat candles, directing your family to the Kosher pantry, providing a prayer rug, or providing baptism, communion and the sacrament of the sick (anointing).
- Pray for and with you.
- Connect you to local congregations where you may worship.
- Connect you with your own parish/faith community.
- Wait with you as you receive news of your baby's diagnosis or prognosis.
- Offer a hand to hold or a shoulder to cry on.
- Assist you in linking the beliefs of your faith with the treatment decisions you may be called upon to make for your baby.
- Share in moments of thanksgiving and celebration.
- Provide blessings at important moments in your journey.
Qualifications of a chaplain
Chaplains are ministers in various faith groups who have been professionally trained as interfaith spiritual care givers in healthcare settings. They are trained to work as part of the interdisciplinary team that will provide care for you and your baby.
Our team
The chaplaincy team at CHOP includes three full-time chaplains, a part-time chaplain and a team of six chaplains who share the overnight and weekend hours. Chaplains are available 24 hours a day/7 days a week, including all holidays. Your child’s nurse can assist you in paging a member of our chaplaincy team if you have immediate needs.
If your needs are specific to your faith group, the chaplain will be able to connect you to someone who can assist you.
Full-time chaplains
- Rev. Ghislaine Cotnoir
- Rev. Millicent Wess
For more information about spiritual care, local places of worship, services times and more, see Chaplaincy Services.
Beyond the unit: A quiet place to pray or reflect
Sometimes it's important to have a quiet place away from your child's bedside to reflect or pray. CHOP offers the Schlimm Center for Prayer and Reflection for this purpose. The center, located on the first floor of the main hospital building just off the rotunda, is open 24 hours a day.
It is a place of peace where patients, family and staff of all faiths can reflect, pray or just sit in a place of comfort. A prayer box and prayer book are in the Schlimm Center and each day the chaplaincy team gathers to offer these prayers. Devotional materials for all ages are also available and many can be taken back to the floor with you.
Contact us
As a partner on your child’s healthcare team, please feel free to contact these individuals if you have additional questions or concerns.
- Rev. Ghislaine Cotnoir, Chaplaincy Coordinator
215-590-1137
cotnoirg@email.chop.edu - Sister Alice Strogen
215-590-1136
stogen@email.chop.edu - Rev. Millicent Wess
267-426-6808
wessm@email.chop.edu
Updated April 2012
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