Sidelines National Support Network  / Volunteer Spotlight  / December_Volunteer

Volunteer of the Month
December 2009
Brisja Brown Riggins

Sidelines volunteer Brisja Brown Riggins with her son, Brown Theodore William Riggins

Name: Brisja Brown Riggins
Home: Puerto Rico (recently moved from Fredericksburg, Virginia)
Husband's Name: Seth
Children's Names and Ages: Brown Theodore William, age 7

"It's important to let people help you.  It's important to admit when you're overwhelmed.  Don't be embarrassed to need help.  The more you take care of yourself, the better your baby will be."

Volunteer Brisja Riggins would have loved to have known about Sidelines when she was dealing with a complicated pregnancy and the delivery of her son, Brown, two months early.  

Brisja explained that she was in a terrible car accident at age 26 and has a badly damaged spine.  When her water broke at 31 weeks, she spent a week in the hospital, where she received terbutaline shots, steroids and antibiotics.

"The doctors were afraid that my spine would not be able to handle a normal birth, but I did have a very successful delivery," she said.  "My son was born at 32 weeks, weighing 2 lbs., 9 oz."

Brown spent two-and-a-half months in the neonatal intensive care unit, and today he is a happy, healthy seven-year-old.  Brisja signed up to be a Sidelines volunteer in 2003 so that she could help others going through similar circumstances.

"My husband and I did not have any friends or family in New York, where we lived when Brown was born, and would have loved to have known about Sidelines then," she said. "I learned a lot about bedrest and preemies during our long stay in the hospital and wanted to share what I had learned with people who need education and support."

Brisja remembers how lonely she felt and how much she appreciated that her husband took off work to stay with her while she was on bedrest at the hospital.

"I had my son in the middle of the night, and the nurse who came to help me, after they took my son to the NICU, had the same name as my grandma who had passed away," she said. "That nurse was so nice to me and kept hugging me, and that meant a lot because we didn't have any family with us."

Brisja had remained in touch with many of the referrals she has supported.  She says it is a special treat to see happy pictures of them with their babies and to know that she helped them through a really tough time.  

"We have become friends who have much more in common now than just the time we spent on bedrest,”"she said.

Brisja is a free-lance writer who wrote a web board called Parenting Preemies for Child.com for three years and for Preemie Magazine during its four years of publication.  She now writes for Fredericksburg Parent magazine as well as other publications.  In her spare time, she enjoys travel, needlepoint, photography, reading and cooking.

Looking back on her own pregnancy, Brisja reminds her referrals that "nothing lasts forever."

"Don't stress about the time you need to spend on bedrest," she advises them.  "It will be more than worth it in the long run when you have your baby in your arms."