March for Babies 2008

I began participating in Walk America through donations to our friends’ walk, because their twin sons were born at 25 weeks. The boys spent four months in the neonatal intensive care unit of our hospital and to this day, although they are wonderfully crazy little boys, they are still experiencing some of the ramifications of being born so early. Little did we know that we would be faced with the fear of having our children born prematurely as well.

Premature birth seems to be growing in our country, or maybe I’m more aware of it now that people that I know and love are affected by it. I went into pre-term labor at 30 weeks. Thanks to my doctors, who knew how terrified I was to have my children endure the same fate as my godson and his brother, I was treated with the utmost of caution. They were very conservative in my treatment and even a little too cautious, but the result was that I gave birth at 36 weeks to two healthy beautiful girls. Although they were a month early, they did not spend one day in the NICU. Since then, we have been actively participating in Walk America, now called March for Babies.

Things like the treatment that my godson received in the hospital or the steroid injections I received while in preterm labor, to hasten the maturity of the Beans’ lungs, have been developed with the help of organizations like the March of Dimes. Advancement in treating these babies when they are born early, and their mothers during pregnancy, is crucial to making healthy happy children and productive adults.

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to March for Babies to help premature babies. You can help our walk here or go to the website to donate to the organization in general. Thank you!