News Moms Need

If your baby is in the NICU, kangaroo care can seem like a life saver. Kangaroo care is a way to hold your baby so that there is as much skin contact between you and your baby as possible. It has wonderful benefits for both you and your baby.

For kangaroo care, your baby is placed upright on your bare chest.
• Ask the nurse for a warm blanket to cover you and your baby.
• Strong smells like perfume or cigarette smoke on you or your clothing can bother your baby, so be sure to wash before holding.
• Hold your baby for at least an hour in this position. Be sure to go to the bathroom and put your phone away before getting comfortable. Your baby needs your full attention.

Gentle, still touch is very important, especially for the most sick and fragile of babies. It might make you feel good to stroke your baby, but it doesn’t feel good to your baby in the NICU. Stroking can make a baby feel uneasy or uncomfortable. Touching without moving your hands is best.

Kangaroo care is good for your baby because it can:
• Keep your baby warm
• Stabilize your baby’s heart rate
• Help your baby gain weight
• Comfort your baby

It’s good for Mom and Dad too because:
• It can help you bond with your baby.
• It can stimulate a mother’s ability to make breast milk.
• It can reduce your stress and lift your spirits.
• It may help you become more confident parents.

Kangaroo care is safe and beneficial, even if your baby is connected to machines. Whatever your situation, kangaroo care is a precious way to be close to your baby. You will cherish this time. You can learn more about kangaroo care by looking at our Power Point presentation at this link.

What is preterm labor? Who is at risk? Are there ways to prevent it? Learn the signs and symptoms and current treatment options.

Dr. Siobhan Dolan, author of the upcoming book Healthy Mom Healthy Baby: the ultimate pregnancy guide will be our guest. Ask questions and share your experience and advice.

Join us on Twitter Friday November 30th at 3 PM ET. Be sure to use #pregnancychat to follow along and fully participate.

Join us on Twitter on Friday November 16th at 3 PM ET to participate in a global relay on premature birth.

Hear from our global network partners: European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (Europe), @EFCNIwecare; Bliss Baby Charity (United Kingdom), @blisscharity; National Premmie Foundation (Australia), @premmfoundation; Little Big Souls International Foundation (Africa), @littlebigsoulsi; and others.

Parents from around the world are encouraged to take part and share their stories. Be sure to use #worldprematurityday to actively participate.

Although the relay chat is on Friday, Saturday November 17th is the actual World Prematurity Day. We will be tweeting and would love to see pictures of preemies from around the world. Please join us then and share your photos on #worldprematurityday.

The U.S. preterm birth rate dropped for the fifth consecutive year in 2011 to 11.7 percent, the lowest in a decade, giving thousands more babies a healthy start in life and saving billions in health and social costs.
 
Four states – Vermont, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Maine earned an “A” on the March of Dimes 2012 Premature Birth Report Card as their preterm birth rates met the March of Dimes 9.6 percent goal. Although, the US preterm birth rate improved, it again earned a “C” on the Report Card.

The US preterm birth rate peaked in 2006 at 12.8, after rising steadily for more than two decades, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. It dropped to 11.7 in 2011, the lowest in a decade.

All this improvement means not just healthier babies, but also a potential savings of roughly $3 billion in health care and economic costs to society, said Dr. Howse, President of the March of Dimes. About 64,000 fewer babies were born preterm in 2010, when compared to 2006, the peak year.

Dr. Howse attributed the improved rates to an expansion of successful programs and interventions, including actions by state health officials in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, who formally set goals to lower their preterm birth rates 8 percent by 2014 from their 2009 rate, based on a challenge issued in 2011 by the Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations. On the 2012 Report Card, 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico saw improvement in their preterm birth rates between 2009 and 2011, earning 16 of them better grades.

The largest declines in premature birth occurred among babies born at 34 to 36 weeks of pregnancy, but the improvement was across the board. Every racial and ethnic group benefitted, and there were fewer preterm babies born at all stages of pregnancy.

The March of Dimes “Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait” campaign urges health care providers and patients not to schedule a delivery until at least 39 completed weeks of pregnancy, unless there is a medical reason to do so. Many important organs, including the baby’s brain and lungs, are not completely developed until then. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Strong Start” initiative is partnering with the March of Dimes to raise awareness about the importance of a full term pregnancy through paid advertising support and collaboration with hospitals to improve perinatal care.

The March of Dimes Report Card compares each state’s preterm birth rate to the March of Dimes goal of lowering the rate to 9.6 percent of all live births by 2020. The Report Card information for the U.S. and states is available at this link.

Please join us Friday, November 9th, at 2 PM ET for a #preemiechat about micropreemies, babies born at less than 28 weeks and weighing less than 800 grams. Our guest will be Amanda Knickerbocker, @micropreemie, whose daughter spent over 200 days in the NICU.

Meet us on Twitter and share your experiences and challenges. Ask questions. Help other parents currently surviving the NICU rollercoaster with tips on things that really helped you survive those long days, weeks, months. We hope to see you then.

Blessings to all the courageous men and women who rescued delicate premature babies from a failing neonatal ICU during the devastating throws of hurricane Sandy.

In a normal NICU hospital setting, highly trained doctors, nurses, therapists and other professionals monitor a baby’s every breath. These fragile beings are totally dependent on all of us for regulating their breathing, body heat, heart rate, and nutrition and it can be a tricky balancing act in the best of times. Here is a link to just some of the many things related to life in the NICU.    How frightening it must have been for everyone to see the mechanical systems failing. That’s where the trained and compassionate medical personnel really shone.

It took multiple people to transfer the isolettes, oxygen, monitors. They needed to be carried down multiple flights of stairs, into the stormy night to waiting ambulances to carrying them to safety. Some babies were tucked skin-to-skin against a nurses warm body (kangaroo care) to keep them warm. Can you imagine being the parent of one of these fragile babies?

If you or a friend or family member experienced the added anxiety of having a baby in a NICU during last week’s storm, or in the power outages that have followed, please feel free to share your story with us and others. How are you coping? What would you like to hear from others and what suggestions do you have?

Please remember that November is Prematurity Awareness Month and November 17th is World Prematurity Day.   Please join the March of Dimes in our efforts to spread the word about the seriousness of premature birth. And don’t forget to thank the docs and nurses you meet for their amazing and caring work.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month and will be a busy month for us on Twitter. Here is a list of times for upcoming chats when you can join us, ask questions and share your stories. Set your reminders and we’ll see you then.

Nov 1 – Evening #preemiechat at 9pm EST (Postponed due to power outages. We will reschedule.)

Nov 9 – Micropreemies chat with Amanda Knickerbocker, #preemiechat @micropreemie, at 2pm EST

Nov 16 – World Prematurity Day global chat, #worldprematurityday, at 3pm EST

Nov 17 World Prematurity Day – We’ll be chatting all day, #preemiechat #worldprematurityday

Nov 20 – Family health history chat with Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, #familyhealthhistory, at 1 pm EST

Nov 30 - #pregnancychat on preterm labor at 1pm EST (Changed to 3 PM ET)

Today I met a preemie who was an inspiration.

I went to my physical therapy session to treat an injured shoulder, and a new PT aide greeted me with a huge smile and got me settled into my usual routine. Her name is Danielle, or “Dani” and since we were both new to one another, we started chatting. Somehow I started talking about the March of Dimes, (big surprise) and she told me that she had been born prematurely,– only 3 lbs. 2 ounces - at 32 weeks, and her twin, sadly, did not make it.

As I pedaled away on the arm ergometer, she told me about all of the medical problems she had at birth – a congenital heart defect (patent ductus arteriosus or PDA which required a metal closure to be surgically implanted, ) a murmur, a perforated rectum, and other complications. There were more surgeries than she could remember, not to mention having had a colostomy. Her preemie problems extended in to her childhood as she had several other surgeries. Numerous therapies followed the surgeries, especially OT and PT. In high school, she set a goal to be healthy and back on her feet in time for her prom, and she was successful!

There was something about this young lady, however, that made me almost think she couldn’t be right. Was she kidding me? As she ran around the room taking care of physical therapy patients, her spritely walk and engaging personality did not reveal that this fighter had had such a difficult start. Quite the opposite.

Danielle defied many of the predictions that doctors had made in those early days (25 years ago). She credits her mother for letting her live a normal life despite her fears of Dani hurting herself or facing serious problems from being so active. And active she was! Dani started gymnastics at the age of 2 and continued all through childhood and into high school. She played basketball and ran high school Varsity track in 7th grade competing against kids much older. She still loves to be active. In fact, she said she occasionally walks on her hands in the PT room, just for fun!

It was Dani’s post surgery physical therapy that inspired her to go into the field. She earned a bachelors degree in biology and is on schedule to graduate from a physical therapy assistant program in the spring of 2013. But why stop there? This preemie fighter is continuing to push the limits – she is waiting to hear if she has been accepted to a doctoral program in physical therapy, because she doesn’t feel she has fulfilled her true potential yet (nothing like an underachiever…right?). Dani is looking forward to specializing in cardiac rehab with children, especially preemies, where she feels she can make a difference. I bet she will. Danielle says her motto is “anything is possible. The word impossible contains the word possible.” She definitely practices what she preaches.

I was happy to discover that both Dani and her mother had participated in March of Dimes activities throughout the years. I am honored that she did. I’d like to think that many of the March of Dimes’ researchers and discoveries helped Dani to become the incredible young lady she is today. If so, it makes me smile. But, perhaps more importantly, it is Dani who is an inspiration to anyone who meets her, especially if you are a preemie or a person with a disability.

So, for all of you parents out there who feel that having a preemie (especially one with medical challenges) is all doom and gloom, you had best think about Danielle. Don’t underestimate your little one’s future – you never know what she will do or achieve!

Premature babies often face extra challenges in their first years of life. So, how are we supposed to know where they might fit with their developmental milestones? Are they on track? Watch this interesting video with pediatrician Dr. Alan Fleischman.

A recent study published in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine is showing that a mother’s voice may help improve the condition of her premature baby.
 
Because they are not fully developed at birth, premature babies have more incidents of lung and heart problems (cardiorespiratory events). Researchers in this study found that these tiny babies were less likely to stop breathing or have their heart rate drop dangerously low when listening to a recording of their mother’s voice and heartbeat.

The study was small, only 14 preterm infants and their mothers were observed, but the results were notable. The babies were played recordings of their mother’s voice and heartbeat four times in 24 hours. The babies had fewer cardiorespiratory events when they heard their mother’s sounds as compared to the normal hospital sounds and noises.

More study needs to be done, but these results show promise by indicating that premature babies show at least short-term improvements in physical stability when listening to their mother’s sounds. Parents can feel so helpless when their baby is in the NICU. This study shows that just talking to your baby, letting her hear that you are there, may make a difference.

Click on this link to read more.