Open Letter to Beyonce & Jay-Z

UPDATE:  This is the article I read that upset me. 

Is anybody else tired of celebrities being treated like royalty?  Because I sure am.  I read a lot over the last couple of days about Beyonce and Jay-Z's escapades at the hospital and it really made me upset.  I was a NICU parent 7 years ago and I can't imagine being denied access to my kid because a celebrity also happened to give birth when I did.

So I've written an open letter to Beyonce and Jay-Z and I really hope they read it.

Dear Beyonce and Jay-Z,

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter.

I was glad to hear that you were able to have your friends and family (including your makeup artist) come and visit you and your new daughter and you were able to have a catered lunch.

That's great.

But what I really want to talk to you about are the NICU parents sharing the hospital with you whose feelings you didn't take into account for one second.

Was it really necessary to lock down the entire floor and block parents from the NICU just so you could use the hallway?  I get that you're big stars and you have to worry about security and whatnot, but there's no reason to be complete assholes.

You know how right now you feel an overwhelming love for Blue mixed with a little fear, uncertainty and anxiety?  Well, NICU parents feel that times a million and the last thing they need is more stress added to their already stressful lives by a couple of divas (you're one too, Jay-Z, don't deny it) who think no one else has ever given birth before.

My bitty baby.

As a former NICU parent I can tell you how easy it is to flip flop back and forth between the excitement of having a new baby and the heart-stopping fear that your child is not well.

When you're in the NICU it is almost unbearable to pass the "normal" parents in the halls who have the pleasure of choosing whether or not they want their baby in the room with them, choosing whether to breastfeed or bottle feed, or the worst: the parents taking large, robust babies home in adorable outfits with lots of photo ops while your child is still hooked up to machines and fighting to live.

These are the parents you had no regard for.

When you're in the NICU, you get 2 maybe 3 visitors allowed at a time.  Each visitor must scrub in like a surgeon before they're allowed in the nursery.  Some visitors are barred at the door if they show any sign of a sniffle or a cough - that is certain death for many of the babies in the NICU.  Some babies are so sick they can't be handled, so their parents just gaze at them and whisper words of encouragement like, "C'mon buddy, you need to fight now.  You need to be strong, because Daddy and I love you so much and we need you to be with us."

Those are the kinds of memories these new parents were making while you were hosting a catered lunch.

The NICU parents were eating cold soup from a vending machine and realizing that the perfect birth they imagined was not happening and what they really needed was some compassion and instead they got hassled - by your "staff."

When you're in the NICU, you need support and lots of it.  You need your family and your friends to rally around you and keep you going.  Some parents are in the hospital with their babies for days, weeks, months and all they live for are the visits that continue to sustain them.

Imagine the distress of these parents - the ones you didn't care about - to find that their loved ones had been relocated or stopped from visiting.  Not for a cold, but because someone in your entourage needed to go out for a smoke or whatever was so important to shut down the hallway.

Were these measures really necessary?  I get that you need to worry about your security, but on the other hand, what are the chances that someone who wants to injure you, your baby or one of your visitors just happens to be in Lenox Hill Hospital with a baby in the NICU that day??  Pretty low is my uneducated guess.

We all want to protect our children, but covering up security cameras sounds like a way to protect your wallet more than your child.  It makes no sense to me that you're so worried some crazy person is going to get you that you install bullet proof windows and doors, but then you cover the security cameras?  If, for some reason (God forbid), someone did get in, you'd need those cameras to help catch that person.

I think you covered the cameras because you want to be sure no one has a picture of Blue.  You want to be the ones to sell her image to the highest bidder without the worry that a grainy surveillance photo is out there.  By covering the cameras though, you put everyone else's child at risk and that was a shitty thing to do.

I understand what happened, I really do.  New parents are PSYCHOTIC.  We all go through it.  It's just what we do.  Even the most normal and down to Earth people lose their shit a bit when they have a baby.  I don't know why we have such high expectations from our stars.  You guys are so out of touch with reality to start with and then you add first time parents to it and you guys go crazy.  I mean, seriously, a $500,000 minivan??  WTF?  Who is going to drive this?  Will you need a shower while you're making a run to Babies 'R' Us?

Either way, it's over now.  Now it's damage control time.  It's time to admit you were wrong and put out an apology.  Jay-Z - own it.  Once you sell the photos of Blue, a nice sizable donation (i.e, the whole check) to March of Dimes would be great.  Or better yet, pay the bills for the parents in the NICU that you disrupted - who are probably still there today wondering when their child will be able to go home.

PS - This story could all be rumor and conjecture.  I have no idea what to believe anymore.  I see articles and stories and then they're retracted.  If none of this is true (as the hospital is saying), then set the record straight.  I truly hope it's not true.

UPDATE: Since I wrote this post an investigation has been done and the complaints against Beyonce and Jay-Z and the hospital have been dismissed. 

SECOND UPDATE:  I received an email from the mother who was denied access to her twins in the NICU.  She thanked me for bringing attention this matter.  Her babies were still in the NICU when I heard from her, but she was going to be bringing them home that day.  She assured me that her story is the truth and that she will be taking further action about the matter.  She didn't want to do anything until her babies were home and healthy.  She promised to keep me posted.