Saturday, November 1, 2008

Purple Tag for Preemies

Saturday, November 1, 2008

November is Prematurity Awareness Month. For the month of November, LWM3B will sport the purple tag. Why?

1 in 8 babies is born too soon in America.

Wait, let me repeat that. One out of every eight babies born in America is a premature baby.

How does that affect you?

Premature babies cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Trouble's medical bills were, and continue to be, high. His first couple of years were hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those costs spike your insurance premiums.

The average classroom has 25 children. If 1 in 8 are preemies, 3 or more children per class will be born too soon. Premature babies have a high risk of learning and developmental problems. If this requires more from the teacher, the overall time per student ratio becomes disproportionate.

Preemies get sick more often; their parents take more sick days from work, and preemies miss more school than their full-term counterparts. Preemies cost employers more than healthy dependent children.

Premature babies have a higher risk of cerebral palsy, blindess, deafness, as well as cognitive, developmental and learning issues, not just as infants, but for their whole lives.





Think about this.

Trouble was perfectly healthy in utero. There is nothing wrong with his genetic makeup. He has no birth defects, genetic anomalies, or diagnoses. Had Trouble been born as a full-term baby, it can be assumed that he would be a perfectly healthy, normally developing child.

All babies deserve their 9 months.

I'm not asking for your money. I'm not asking you to sign anything, click anything, visit any site.

I'm only asking you to be aware. And now you are. Thank you.


Please consider spreading the word about premature babies. I challenge you to tell 5 people about PAM.
Snag my button for your sidebar and in your comments let me know how you've spread the word about premature babies.

I will feature great ideas and some of the bloggers on an upcoming post here at LWM3B.





post signature

Posted at 6:18 PM
Labels: ,

26 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads up about PAM. My first was a preemie so I understand what's involved.

    I hope you see the word spread quickly about PAM.
    ReplyDelete
  2. all 5 of mine were born early......2 of them were born earlier (one was 6 1/2 weeks and the other 8 weeks and he spent 5 weeks in the NICU at Blank Children's Hospital. Thank GOD for insurance. Thank for for spreading the word. I am grabbing your ribbon to put on my blog!
    http://iowastatecyclonefans.blogspot.com

    for years we purchased preemie clothes to donate to the unit, made sheets out of cute disney and other characters (for the parents of course....always made me feel better to see Brenner on a cute sheet) and we also donated hundreds of dollars of scholastic books to the unit both english, spanish and bilingual.....

    You go girl!
    ReplyDelete
  3. Good cause! I guess this is a colorful blog-awareness time of year. I just removed my pink today from Breast Cancer Awareness. :-)
    ReplyDelete
  4. Darcy,

    I have several friends who have been affected, just as your family has been affected by a Preemie. I have posted your info on my blog at www.pairofbartletts.blogspot.com

    Thanks for reminding us all!

    Your friend from Southern Alabama,
    Jen
    ReplyDelete
  5. My preemie's 5th birthday is Tuesday, so we will always remember!

    When we did the NICU thing, was the first time I ever realized how many babies there are that are born early. There were tons of preemies! Almost all the babies there were tiny (there was one that full term and 8 pounds, and he looked HUGE compared to all of us in the 5 pound and under crowd).

    Praise God we're big and healthy now!
    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad you've gone purple to help awareness!!

    Remy was born early...two weeks or so, not too bad, but he had trouble keeping his body temp up for a while. Nothing like the big problems premeeies have though.

    I'll blog about it!
    ReplyDelete
  7. I do not have a blog, but I sent out a fact sheet to everyone in my office (18 employees) with a cool chart and our personal story. I had some wonderful responses. I hope I made them all aware!

    Darcy, I tell people about your story also and point them toward your blog. You, Trouble, and your whole family inspire me so much. Your family has touched so many lives. From one mother to another, thank you so much for all you do for MOD, PAE (Prematurity Awareness EVERYDAY!), and those people that hear your story and feel like they have finally found someone else who knows what they are going through. ;) Thank you!

    ~Jennifer
    ReplyDelete
  8. My son was born at 35 weeks, but only weighed 1 lb. 13 oz. He did amazingly well, and you would never know he had a traumatic entrance into the world.

    My two girls were also delivered early, because my babies stop growing at the end of gestation. (I have fibroid tumors that grow during pregnancy.) My girls was just over 4 lbs. and perfectly fine.

    My question is how can you help babies have 9 months in the womb? There wasn't much I could do, but I'm wondering what other things cause premature birth?

    Peace to you,
    Renae
    http://lifenurturingeducation.com
    ReplyDelete
  9. I will!...great facts and truths about preemies!
    -sandy toes
    ReplyDelete
  10. This is a great cause!! I have you on the top of my sidebar! Thanks Darcy!
    ReplyDelete
  11. I put up your purple banner. My girls were extra cooked. Both at 2+ weeks late. But I have a very good friend with a preemie baby (born into her household the same week that her teenage daughter had a baby - that no one knew she was about to have!) - and they do the March of Dimes walk in Chicago every year.
    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for the added "awareness" today.

    I linked your post onto my site.

    I was wondering too, what could be done to help with bringing babies to term?

    Any resources?

    I'm a knitter and know others that knit hats for preemies but that is an after the fact help.

    Is there anything other than research at this point?

    Curious
    ReplyDelete
  13. I grabbed the button and put it on my blog in honor of my preemie.

    Thank you for all that you do to get the word out!
    ReplyDelete
  14. I don't get it Darcy. What can we do to help babies get their nine months? I know there is educating mothers on what not to do when they are pregnant and yet I know some who were model pregnant women and still had a premature baby. I will, of course, click on the link and I hope to learn more.
    ReplyDelete
  15. I was a preemie born 2 months early in a hospital in the boonies in South Korea. Tank was also a preemie-- he tried to enter the world at 27 weeks but we were able to make him stay put until the 35 week mark (hooray for drugs!).
    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi from India,

    This is the Darcy i know.
    I felt i had got lost in pool of your words before.

    Shruti
    ReplyDelete
  17. Darcy,
    I am fighting morning sickness more this time around than every before but I am going to try to link up asap on my blog.

    May God bless you for the work you do! <3
    ReplyDelete
  18. Darcy -
    You know my story - and know why I support the March of Dimes. I adore your family, Trouble, his story...your story.

    Every baby deserves their full nine months. I will continue fighting in hopes that something I do makes a difference.

    Love ya -
    Denise
    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for this! We have a preemie too.:) I am adding the button!
    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi Darcy,

    As usual you rock. Thanks for promoting the PAM agenda with your readers! I'm going to try and visit and comment on each and every one. Bev
    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks for making me more aware, Darcy! None of my children have been born premature, but I thought I'd mention one way to still help. I donate blood (not as often as I should), and because of my blood type (O-)they always tell me I'm helping the little babies at the children's hospital.
    ReplyDelete
  22. All four of my kids were premature. The last 2 were over 2 months premature. I would love to write a full post on it for you. Let me know if you are interested
    ReplyDelete
  23. I snagged your tag, Darcy. I've never given birth to a preemie, but in 11 years of marriage we've had 4 beautiful children and lost 7. I put your tag next to my own story.
    Thank you for making people more aware.
    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi Darcy! I'm new to your site (referred from SITS) and the world of blogging. I'm also a Mom to 3 BOYbarians (love that!) A set of twins born March of 08 at 28weeks gestation weighing just 2lbs. They will be 8 months on Tues (11/11) and are doing awesome! And a super energetic 5 year old. Check us out at www.hhhjones.blogspot.com. I posted the PAM banner, thanks so much!! ~Shannon
    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi there! I found your site through a button on Rhea's blog. I'm a Mommy to micro-preemie, Olivia was born 16 weeks too soon and lived for 7 amazing days. I went on to have a full-term pregnancy with my baby boy, but only thanks to the fantastic technology that is available. However, it's not enough. I was an incompetent cervix patient and I've learned, through experience, that the doctors can determine if you are IC simply by measuring the cervix during every ultrasound, but I guess it costs too much. Anyway, I'll jump off of this soapbox for now. I'm just doing all I can do to spread awareness! Thanks for standing up for preemies!
    ReplyDelete
  26. Darcy,

    Hopefully better late than never...I finally posted the purple ribbon on my blog and did a post linking many of yours in it.

    Miss you! Give Trouble a huge hug for me. He's been on my mind a lot this month.

    Jen
    ReplyDelete

That which we call a comment
By any other name would read as sweet(ly).

Thanks for leaving me a comment. Love it!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)