Molly is our beautiful, smiley, vivacious baby girl who was born on February 21, 2015. She was healthy, agreeable and so happy. She was welcomed by her adoring older brother, Owen and a family that could not have been more excited to have a little girl in its midst. On May 4th, 2015, Molly was dropped off at our sitter's house for her first day of daycare and our first day back to work after maternity leave. Then, at noon, a call came that changed our lives forever. Molly was put down for a nap and never woke back up. Our sweet girl was gone. What we first suspected as SIDS was later determined to be 'positional asphyxiation.' In other words...an accident. Our 10 week old baby had been swaddled and propped on her side in a pack n play that had blankets on the bottom. At some point after being placed down for a nap, Molly rolled onto her belly and was not able to breathe.
Losing your child is the worst possible thing a parent can go through. Finding out it was preventable is just about unbearable. Since May 4th, it has become our mission to help other families avoid the same heartache we've suffered.
The Molly Ann Gries Foundation was born out of a feeling of necessity to share our story and truths about safe sleep practices to help other families avoid the same nightmare we have been living.
Our mission is to spread awareness about safe sleep practices through education and resource distribution.
We’ve partnered with businesses, health care providers, and local organizations to distribute information to families with at risk infants. We encourage the use of safe sleep guidelines as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). We can't help but wonder if our life would be different today, if Molly had taken her nap according to these valuable recommendations. We encourage you to check out the websites on our Resources tab.