Saturday, April 26, 2008

March For Babies










The March of Dimes Today

Even though we have beaten polio, the fight to save babies goes on. March of Dimes researchers, volunteers, educators, outreach workers and advocates work together to give all babies a fighting chance against the threats to their health. Things like: prematurity, birth defects and low birthweight.

Premature Birth
Each year, more than 525,000 babies (1 in 8) are born too soon, some so small they can fit in the palm of a hand. Many of these babies must fight just to survive; others must struggle with lifelong health problems. No one knows the causes of nearly half of all premature births, and no one is working harder than the March of Dimes to find out.

(excerpt from the March of Dimes website, located on my sidebar if you want to read more!)

Today my family went to our lovely state capitol and walked six miles to promote prematurity awareness and the March of Dimes. It was a fantastic day, the sun was shining and the people were friendly; over 8,000 people gathered this year for the March For Babies. We have participated in this event for four years now, and every year it is fantastic. I have met lots of families with premature babies who have survived and to this day struggle with medical complications. I have also met lots of families with babies that did not survive and they are left with an empty space in their lives where those babies had been so briefly.
Paul was not premature, and I pray that none of my children ever will be, but if our family should have to undergo this unfortunate situation I would be so thankful for the March of Dimes; both for the research they conduct to try to bring an end to prematurity, and for the support the foundation provides to families and to babies born premature.

2 comments:

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi,

Nice blog, nice pictures. Does you little P have a natural mohawk? Too cute. I liked his hungover pix, too. Is he the crabby sort, or does he mostly stay calm?

PBandJ said...

Yep, P has a natural Mohawk! Actually, all of his hair grows right out of the back of one spot on his head (it seems) and is quite unruly! He is a great kid and is mostly calm, which is why I love his grumpy pix, because they do not usually happen! Thanks for reading and enjoy!