I'm walking for my two sons, one who made it and one who didn't.
My first son was born at a "women's hospital" that had no clue how to handle the premature labor situation and did not seek to transfer my wife to a larger hospital with a NICU. They were so unaware that they didn't even have a way to communicate our loss to the staff at the nurses' station outside the LDR room, who wished us "congratulations" as my wife was wheeled out. They looked stunned when I replied "no" to them. My son was born at 22 weeks gestation weighing less than a pound. He lived for five minutes. He would've turned seventeen last October. There's still a hole in my heart from losing him that will never go away.
The hospital has undergone a management change since then, and now reportedly does have a reputable NICU. I'd like to think that our experience there had some influence on that improvement.
My second son was born at a hospital well-versed in caring for moms going into labor prematurely and babies born way too soon. My wife was admitted and under direct care for weeks before delivery. Medications whose development was supported by March of Dimes were administered during that time to help my son's lungs develop. When he was born, at 28 weeks gestation, he weighed 2 pounds, 1.4 ounces, and went to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. More medications supported by the March of Dimes helped him survive and develop.
He is now 11 years old and is a caring, intelligent, talented and charismatic kid, thanks in part to the March of Dimes (and the great staff at St. Peter's Hospital). He's not only academically gifted, but he's also quite talented at dancing, playing musical instruments, acting and performing arts in general. He wants to design theme parks when he grows up, and I don't doubt that he'll do it.
But my sons are only two of the millions of stories to be told about premature babies. Thousands are born every day. Some are lucky, like my second son. Some are not. Many who survive still suffer from many medical conditions and need a great deal of help to live what even approximates normal lives.
I walk for the March of Dimes because I want to help prevent premature births, and to help support cures and care for the afflictions of those that are born prematurely. Parents should take their children home from the hospital, not to the cemetery.
The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.
