Yamile Jackson was a new mother of a premature baby, born 12 weeks ahead of schedule. Scared, as all mothers would be, she turned to her creative side and invented the Zaky as a way to interact with her son even when she couldn’t stay by his side 24/7:
Little Zachary was on a long road to recovery and every day in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (155 days to be exact) he was fighting for his life. Jackson spent long hours each day with her son, and hated leaving him at night — which is, as most parents know, the hardest part about having a NICU baby. […] After extensive research, Jackson took a leap of faith and created a simple bean-filled gardening glove that she tucked against her son every night. Jackson would also keep a second pair of gloves with her during the day so it had her scent, and trade it out every night before she left. Jackson’s one-of-a-kind gloves mimicked the smell, warmth and feel of her being there. And after weeks of introducing these unique gloves to her son, something miraculous happened: little Zachary began to recover rapidly.
Named for her son, the Zaky is already being used all over the world to help comfort premature babies and even other babies who’s parents have to go back to work.
Cheers to Yamile for inventing such a useful product that brings comfort to so many babies!
And today we celebrate...