{"id":237672,"date":"2025-11-06T20:12:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=237672"},"modified":"2025-11-06T20:12:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:12:37","slug":"read-to-grow-books-for-babies-launches-at-uconn-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/11\/read-to-grow-books-for-babies-launches-at-uconn-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Read to Grow Books for Babies Launches at UConn Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn John Dempsey Hospital<\/a> is now participating in Read to Grow\u2019s Books for Babies program<\/a>, which provides families of newborns with a free book and vital early literacy resources before they even leave the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"a
Read to Grow and UConn employees from labor and delivery pose in front of bookmobile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On November 6, Read to Grow officially launched the program in UConn Health\u2019s labor and delivery unit, celebrating a partnership designed to give every baby born here a strong start in life through the power of reading, singing, and talking from day one.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur message is simple but transformative,\u201d said Suzannah Holsenbeck, Executive Director of Read to Grow. \u201cRead, sing, talk, and play with your baby. All that language exposure, all that time bonding, literally helps grow your baby\u2019s brain, building the white matter that supports healthy development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year, approximately 29,000 newborns across Connecticut receive the same book, Welcome to the World<\/em>, through this program. Read to Grow<\/a> began 25 years ago with a single hospital partner and now reaches birthing centers statewide. The organization also supports families through its Books for Kids and Bookmobile programs, which distribute more than 100,000 books annually to children and families free of charge.<\/p>\n

\"group
Suzannah Holsenbeck, Executive Director of Read to Grow, Dr. Shabnam Lainwala, Connecticut Children\u2019s, Dr. David Sink,\u00a0 Connecticut Children’s NICU at UConn Health, Caryl Ryan, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer UConn Health, Lina Godfrey, Nurse Manager, OB\/GYN and |?}>Karen Curley, Senior Director Nursing UConn Health<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Holsenbeck said the partnership with UConn Health began a few years ago in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where books were given to parents to promote early bonding and language development. Now, with the program\u2019s expansion to labor and delivery, every new parent will receive a book and information on nurturing their child\u2019s language growth from birth.<\/p>\n

Dr. Shabnam Lainwala, director of the regional neonatal neurodevelopmental follow-up program at Connecticut Children\u2019s, has been connected with Read to Grow for years. \u201cWe\u2019ve been providing books to families through our follow-up clinic and are so excited to see this expand hospital-wide,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful way to reinforce the importance of reading at every stage of early development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. David Sink, neonatologist and medical director at the Connecticut Children’s NICU at UConn Health highlighted how timely the partnership is given the growth of the hospital\u2019s maternity services.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nursery is the fastest growing in the state, with about 12 percent year-over-year growth,\u201d he said. \u201cThat means more families than ever will benefit from this program and from the message that literacy and connection start at birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program reflects what matters most to us supporting healthy development and family connection from the very beginning,\u201d says Caryl Ryan, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer for UConn Health, \u201cWe\u2019re proud to be part of something that reaches families across Connecticut and helps close the literacy gap before it begins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
Employees choosing books from the book mobile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As part of the celebration, Read to Grow\u2019s Bookmobile also visited campus, offering free books to children ages 0\u20137 and sharing the joy of reading with staff and families alike.<\/p>\n

The launch marks another way UConn Health is supporting families beyond medical care \u2014 helping parents nurture their child\u2019s development from the very first days of life.<\/p>\n

Through this collaboration, Read to Grow and UConn Health are reinforcing a shared mission: to give every child in Connecticut the best possible start. Together, they\u2019re turning a simple act \u2014 opening a book \u2014 into the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning, connection, and growth.<\/p>\n

As Holsenbeck reminded those gathered, \u201cIt\u2019s never too early to start reading to your baby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving Every Newborn the Gift of Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":237673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,179,2295],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2209],"class_list":["post-237672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-uconn-health","category-womens-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 09:02:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237679,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237672\/revisions\/237679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/237673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237672"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=237672"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=237672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}