If you love cuddling babies, then we have just the job for you. While the monetary pay isn’t so great, the benefits you receive will far outnumber any amount of pay you could ever want. What job is this? The job of a baby cuddler volunteer.

The babies that need cuddling the most are sadly the victims of drugs. They are born addicted to drugs because their mothers were users while pregnant. These babies suffer from a condition known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS. One of the things that helps the babies the most – cuddling.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the incidence of NAS has increased a whopping 383 percent since 2000. This means that there are plenty of babies across the United States that could benefit from the loving touch of a trained cuddler. As you’ll see in the video below, in Pennsylvania alone, there are some 600 babies a year born addicted to drugs.

What exactly does cuddling do for these babies? They are born addicted to drugs and then suddenly taken away from them. The detox that the babies go through is hard on the babies to say the least, but those who are cuddled are proven to have fewer symptoms and require less medications.

The tender touch of the cuddlers helps the babies heal faster which results in shorter hospital stays. There are programs all across the U.S. just like the one that is featured in the video, so if you like to cuddle babies, there’s likely a hospital close to you that could use the help.

The program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was started by a nurse named Jane Cavanaugh who says she saw a need for the program because the incidence of drug use seemed to be on the rise. The babies need human touch to help lessen the symptoms of withdrawal and for proper brain development.

The hospital vice president of patient services is happy to say that the program started by Cavanaugh is working because NAS babies are able to go home sooner and receive less medication than in years before the cuddler program began.