05/11/2026
When Maria delivered her daughter Cristhine at 26 weeks, navigating the NICU was scary enough, without being able to easily communicate with her care team.
That's why NICU nurse Deirdre Casey created NICU SPEAKS, a multilingual phone line program giving families the power to reach their child's care team in their own language. Now expanding to 10 languages.
Today, Christine is doing well and will be on her way home soon.
Having a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit is scary. Now imagine there’s a language barrier keeping you from getting updates on your baby's health.
After experiencing pregnancy complications, Maria delivered her daughter, Cristhine, at 26 weeks with Monique Jones, MD, Associate Chief of Labor and Delivery at Katz Women’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center. This marked the beginning of an unexpected NICU journey. As she coped with her daughter’s hospitalization, a language barrier heightened her fears and made it difficult to understand what was happening.
To ensure families can access their child’s care in their preferred language, Deirdre Casey, RN, BSN, staff nurse in the NICU at Cohen Children's Medical Center, created the NICU SPEAKS program.
“While we are very good at using translation services in person, and we call families with updates, I noticed we had a communication gap. Families couldn’t easily call us,” said Casey. “The NICU SPEAKS project filled that gap. It gives the power to communicate with us to the families.”
NICU SPEAKS currently has dedicated phone lines in Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, and Bengali and is expanding to 10 languages. This service provided Maria with guidance, companionship and a voice when hers felt limited. Being able to communicate with Cristhine’s care team helped Maria during a vulnerable time. Today, Christine is doing well and will be on her way home soon.
Happy Mother's Day to Maria and all the mothers celebrating!