Team Bambini: The March of Dimes and YOU!

If you're still on the fence about raising money and/or walking, perhaps you'd like to know some more information about how the March of Dimes benefits you, me, and everyone we know. If you get to the end of this list and can't answer yes to any of these questions, you have my permission to forget about March for Babies and stop reading this blog. (You should also probably visit a doctor...as you are 50+ years behind on some basic vaccinations...)

If you answer yes to any of these questions, consider the impact it's had on your health and the health of your babies (past, present, and future!) and please join the team to raise some money and awareness for the organization that made that all possible.

1. Are you or your partner currently expecting a baby or planning to in the near future?
If yes, you probably know it's important to receive prenatal care, one of the best ways to ensure a healthy birth. Also, you probably know to take at least 400 micrograms of folic acid a day through a multivitamin or fortified cereal to greatly reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain and spinal cord. The March of Dimes works to make sure these important steps are a part of everyone's plan to have a healthy baby. The March of Dimes maintains a comprehensive Pregnancy & Newborn Health Education Center in English and Spanish, the News Moms Need blog, and programs that help high-risk populations learn about healthy pregnancies and receive prenatal care. For not-quite-parents-to-be, the March of Dimes is a leader in preconception women's health, too, i.e. everything women of childbearing age can do to stay healthy regardless of plans to have a baby.

2. Do you have a child or grandchild who was born prematurely, especially in the past 25 years?
Chances are that child benefited from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a concept pioneered by the March of Dimes, and artificial surfactant, a life-saving substance. March of Dimes researchers (funded by events like March for Babies) helped develop surfactant and the proper way to administer it to enable premature lungs to expand and contract. It saves the lives of thousands of babies each year. Click here to see other major medical advances accomplished by the March of Dimes research you're supporting. The March of Dimes also launched the NICU Family Support program and currently has at least one NICU Family Support Specialist in every state working one-on-one with families in the NICU. Even if you're never personally experienced this, remember that one in 10 babies in the U.S. spend time in a NICU, meaning that every one of us knows at least one person whose life was saved in a NICU.

3. Do you have a child or grandchild 3 years old or younger?
You've benefited from the March of Dimes support of the "Back to Sleep" initiative to make sure babies sleep on their side or back to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

4. Do you have a child or grandchild 6 years old or younger?
Your child has benefited from the March of Dimes efforts to ensure children receive the rubella vaccine before starting school.

5. Do you have a child or grandchild 20 years old or younger?
In that time, the March of DImes has funded research into the newborn test that identifies sickle cell anemia, allowing for immediate and effective treatment.

6. Are you or do you have a child or grandchild 30 years old or younger?
You have benefited from the innovation of the sonogram or ultrasound pioneered by March of Dimes researchers.

7. Are you or do you have a child or grandchild 40 years old or younger?
You and your family have benefited from the PKU test given to every baby at birth. Before this test, families would take home their child unaware of special needs, and the condition would cause the child to develop mental retardation.

8. Have you ever received a polio vaccination?
Of course, almost everyone in America has! Thanks to the research behind the Salk vaccine funded by the March of Dimes, polio has been nearly eradicated. (March of Dimes founder and polio sufferer Franklin D. Roosevelt would be so proud!)

Now you can see it is no exaggeration that everyone is affected by the work of the March of Dimes. Feel free to share some of these facts as you're approaching your friends and potential donors. If they have a baby, have had a baby, are having a baby, plan to ever have a baby, have grandbabies, are related to a baby, or ever were a baby (hard to get out of that one), the donation they're making has a direct benefit to them. Pretty incredible, no?