Nurse Lynne Phillips attends to a premature baby at Sutter Health’s CPMC in San Francisco, Calif., in the neonatal intensive care unit as members of the non-profit Once Upon a Room wait in the hall with decorations on Thursday, April 16, 2026. The NICU limits visitors, but invited the non-profit to decorate rooms to create a more welcoming for parents spending weeks in the hospital. (Andres Jimenez Larios/ Bay City News)
Andres Jimenez Larios/Bay City News
Rooms in the neonatal intensive care unit at San Francisco’s Sutter Health’s CPMC were abuzz on Thursday with a dozen volunteers who worked to transform the relatively plain walls into a more welcoming facade for premature babies and their families.
The nonprofit Once Upon a Room worked with Sutter CPMC staff to put up streamers, dinosaur stickers, and customized blankets in the rooms of three NICU patients – the first time ever in a North California hospital – with the goal to make families feel better in a space where they spend days on end as medical professionals care for their children.
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Behind a set of heavy-duty doors only accessible through select badge access is the Deikel Family NICU, where medical staff work around the clock taking care of infants. Babies are monitored inside an incubator with screens and equipment at the ready. Each room is designed to maximize efficiency for nurses and doctors, but it can result in a space lacking decoration.
Staff prioritize the needs of their tiny patients but also recognize the value of creating an environment where families feel supported during traumatic experiences “no one ever plans for.”
Tina Lubus, NICU patient care manager and registered nurse, said she hopes to see parents feel supported in the unit. She believes the personal side of a hospital can be lost, but small actions like those done by Once Upon a Room help remind families that they’re not alone.
“You have high emotions that these families are going through,” said Lubus. “Sometimes it’s important to remember to connect with that person and their experiences here. It’s not just about tactical task care, it’s the emotional full picture.”
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Lauren Wickham volunteers with Once Upon a Room. She was motivated to participate because of the passing of her mom from breast cancer and wanted to help make medical spaces feel warmer to help people with their emotions.
“I think when you have such a positive energy, it keeps you around longer and it heals you and families,” said Wickham.
Fellow volunteer Sophie Ekman helped decorate the room of Phoenix, who quietly slept in an incubator as volunteers hung purple streamers and signs. Ekman felt like she is giving back to her community.
“Not everybody is fortunate to not have to spend their first months of life in the hospital and to make that as wonderful for those that have to, is special,” Ekman said.
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After the Once Upon a Room volunteers finished decorating the rooms of the NICU babies, they invited their mothers for the big reveal. Each room design had input from the parents on color and patterns the family would like, all decorated free of charge.
When Charnea Morris walked down the hall and entered her daughter Phoenix’s room, she could not stop smiling. Purple streamers hung from a previously blank wall while pillows with Phoenix’s name ironed on sat on the nearby couch.
“It’s a hospital, so it’s not like the best or most exciting thing,” said Morris. “The nurses are really nice here, but looking at the same walls, it’s kind of military.”
Dr. Kevin McKim has been working as a neonatologist at Sutter CPMC for over five years and said decorating a room so families feel more comfortable, even happier, is not trivial – it can lead to better health outcomes for babies. According to him, it helps parents’ bond with their premature babies, trust medical staff on how to take care of their kids, and keep them invested.
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“In neonatology, you’re not just treating the kid. You have to treat the whole family,” said McKim. “So, to have moments like this of joy and sort of an expression where we can sort of do something to the boring hospital walls is great. It’s a really good way to just help support the family’s sort of emotional state as we go through this.”
Not long after Jenny Galdamez walked to her daughter Kimberly’s room, who has been under medical observation since Christmas Eve. Jenny couldn’t help tearing up after she saw the dinosaur stickers and cutouts strung around the room.
“We have been here for so long, so the small changes, are great.” Said Galdamez. “I love it.”
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