The Never Forgotten room is on a back hallway of the neonatal intensive care unit at Erlanger hospital, just far enough away from where the living newborns are being nursed and crying.
On the wall, a brown bear floats on blue-sky clouds. White cabinets are filled with boxes of knit hats, some small enough to cover a thumb. Doll-sized gowns go on the right. Hand-painted boxes on the left hide mementos abandoned by parents who weren’t ready to take them home.
The hospital will keep them here for 10 years, just in case someone comes back to remember the baby she lost.
Between 25 and 30 babies are born dead every month at Erlanger. People come from far beyond Hamilton County to deliver here because Erlanger has the region’s only high-risk labor and delivery unit.
One-third of the deaths are mysterious, but the rest can be linked to pregnancy-related forms of high blood pressure, pregnancy-induced hypertension, chromosomal abnormalities, a lack of oxygen, bacterial infections, umbilical cord accidents or maternal diabetes.