ANNUAL REPORT 2021
HEALTHY PREGNANCIES, FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES AND YOU
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TOGETHER
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Last year was tough on everyone, especially parents. Being pregnant or giving birth can be scary enough without a pandemic lurking outside the door. There are too many families with stories like Keelee’s, whose baby Adrian was born four months too soon, struggling to survive, while she endured multiple surgeries due to pregnancy complications. March of Dimes supporters came through for families in a big way so we could be there for them when they needed us most.
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
CRITICAL
INNOVATIVE
STAYING STRONG FOR FAMILIES
“March of Dimes gives me encouragement that there’s an organization out there working towards creating a better experience for moms and babies.”
KEELEE MOSLEY, March of Dimes mom
HEAR HER STORY
NICU Initiatives
We reached more than 50,000 families through our NICU Initiatives, including the NICU Family Support® (NFS) program and the My NICU Baby® and Mi Bebé en la NICU apps, which were downloaded over 14,000 times. Thanks to you, we continued to support and innovate with hospital partners in working both on site and remotely with families who couldn’t be present. We also provided through our markets 6,249 meals for frontline workers and NICU families, 9,190 NICU bags with essential items as well as critical information and medical supplies to health care workers and families—including 82,050 masks and 281 tablets for hospital partners—during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year also marked the 20th anniversary of NFS, which has supported more than a million families over the past two decades. We launched our virtual NFS model, and educational content that was featured in the Wellness Network, Nicolette and Ovia platforms. We ended the year at 67 sites nationwide, with new programs opening at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital; Wellstar Cobb; Hackensack University Medical Center Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital; and virtually at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.
“March of Dimes provided us with great support, encouragement and compassion through our NICU stay, and we are truly grateful.”
KARISSA MCLAREN, NICU mom
The generosity of our caring donors, such as members of our prestigious Roosevelt Society, made it possible to continue our relentless research to end preventable preterm birth at our Prematurity Research Centers in the U.S. and London. Our studies showcased a variety of factors that impact preterm birth, including wildfire smoke during pregnancy and a father’s education (as a father’s education level increases, preterm birth rates decrease). Throughout the year, we continued funding COVID-19 research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the University of Pennsylvania. Donations and fundraising enabled us to invest $6.5 million in 26 active grants to speed the development of lifesaving diagnostics and treatments for moms and babies, and we published 74 publications. Our scientific reports, including the March of Dimes Report Card and Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S., garnered nearly 208,000 webpage views.
Research
“We’ve brought together a transdisciplinary team to study the antibody response that pregnant individuals make after being infected with COVID-19.”
DR. ANDREA EDLOW, March of Dimes grantee
NEXT CHAPTER
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A pregnancy is the beginning of one of the most wonderful chapters of any parent’s life. Unfortunately, finding access to proper maternal care and information was more difficult than usual for many people in 2021. Even without the added layer of COVID-19 vaccines and masks and restrictions, it was a lot to figure out. But Alexandra and Edgar and parents everywhere had a powerful ally on their side, no matter the situation. March of Dimes stood up to make it easier for families to do what they do best: care for each other.
“With the twins being born preterm and during COVID and having to see them on the iPad, we missed out on seeing what their development was like.”
ALEXANDRA AND EDGAR MEDINA, March of Dimes mom and dad
Mobile Health Centers
With support and funding from our community in 2021, March of Dimes Mom & Baby Mobile Health Centers® provided nearly 3,000 patient visits. These units, operating in five communities in Arizona, Ohio, Maryland and Washington, D.C., helped uninsured and under-insured women of childbearing age receive quality health care services—such as prenatal care and well-woman visits—for themselves and their babies. We also provided over 5,000 COVID-19 vaccines.
“Access is not just being able to reach the services that you need, but reach them in a culturally aware way. The mobile bus does exactly that.”
JENNIFER L. PORTER, MPH, MCHES, Executive Director, DC Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives
Too many families nationwide need support preparing for pregnancy, and our community knows it—that’s why they helped us continue providing local programs like Supportive Pregnancy Care® (SPC), our group prenatal care program that brings high quality prenatal care along with education and social support where it’s most needed. In 2021, March of Dimes trained providers to implement SPC in whatever manner was best for them and the pregnant people they serve—from standard or socially-distanced in-person groups to virtual groups with a telehealth prenatal care component through our Virtual Supportive Pregnancy Care option. We conducted site-specific trainings for new sites, and also a virtual nationwide training in September for sites that were on hold during the pandemic. Despite the barriers COVID-19 imposed, many of our SPC sites persevered, demonstrating the successes we hope to see—patient and provider satisfaction, community-building among participants and an enhanced prenatal care experience.
Supportive Pregnancy Care
“March of Dimes gave me the hope I needed to get through the challenges I was going through with my daughter, and also the resources to know I wasn’t alone.”
EMILY HARRIET, March of Dimes mom
March of Dimes is there through every stage of the pregnancy journey, even when things don’t go as planned. In 2021, we hosted 10 Healthy Moms, Strong Babies webinars, bringing together experts, parents and leaders on topics ranging from infant loss, to debunking COVID-19 myths, to Black motherhood. We reached more than 156,000 people to help moms and their families best prepare and care for their baby. Our webinars had a total reach in paid and organic social of 237,000, with a 53 percent year-over-year increase in engagement rate.
Healthy Moms, Strong Babies Webinars
“The piece of advice I’d like to give moms out there is use the support you have at home.”
ADRIANA COSTA, TV personality on “Bringing Home Your NICU Graduate During COVID-19” Healthy Moms Strong Babies Webinar
Together with our partners and you, we celebrated resiliency with It Starts With Mom, our campaign to help moms and moms-to-be find support and give support—while increasing awareness of March for Dimes and our work to support families. It Starts With Mom raised more than $3 million through corporate partnerships and contributions, and $99,000 during Mother’s Day week through digital and direct marketing solicitations. It Starts With Mom also garnered significant media attention through national media placements, local radio placements and press release pickups, enabling the messaging and information to reach millions of women across the country. ItStartsWithMom.org offered moms pregnancy health resources with more than 17,000 website views. Our second annual It Starts With Mom Live took place on May 7, hosted by Shawn Johnson East, entrepreneur, author and former Olympic gymnast, and received more than 30,000 views. Nationwide, women learned about prioritizing their mental health and wellness, getting strength through community and how healthy eating can be a family-friendly activity.
It Starts With Mom
“This past year was really hard on everyone learning how to navigate work life and mom life and social life and life with your spouse—and doing that all under the same roof and still being a good mom.”
SHAWN JOHNSON EAST, It Starts With Mom Live host
With the global pandemic in its second year, conversations turned more and more to health equity, and March of Dimes advanced the initiatives and support we’d already begun to make an even bigger impact for families of color. Every family deserves the best possible start. Helping to make America more equitable for moms like Shannel is an enormous task, but March of Dimes donors and volunteers were up to the challenge.
“I felt like something wasn’t right. I voiced my concerns and my concerns were dismissed.”
SHANNEL PEARMAN, March of Dimes mom
Advocacy
Thanks to the voices of outstanding advocates like you, March of Dimes’ Office of Government Affairs led a successful, aggressive maternal and child health policy agenda. Among the achievements was the passage of the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP). This included key March of Dimes’ priorities, such as a new option allowing states to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for up to 12 months, which provides 250,000 moms extended postpartum benefits. Our state government team also advocated for 106 pieces of state legislation, 34 of which were signed into law, including the state approval and authorization to take advantage of the ARP’s new postpartum provisions and the creation of innovative programs supporting pregnant women’s access to doulas and midwives. We provided critical leadership to ensure enactment of the first Momnibus bill—the bipartisan Protecting Moms Who Served Act in late 2021. These policy adoptions will have a positive impact for undeserved women, especially Black moms, across the country. Last year our #BlanketChange advocacy network acquired nearly 11,000 new advocates with more than 47,000 actions taken to call on policymakers to improve mom and baby health. We made an impact on the 2021 Black Maternal Health #Momnibus Act, a package of 12 bills that builds on existing legislation to address maternal and infant health.
“I didn’t have adequate family leave.”
TARA MARIE MENDOZA, March of Dimes mom
Bringing people and organizations together is at the heart of how we support families. At the national level, March of Dimes facilitates the Mom and Baby Action Network (M-BAN): a consortium of more than 320 national, state and local partners dedicated to addressing inequities in maternal and infant health through five shared strategies. As a leading M-BAN partner, March of Dimes is also building partnerships with local public and private organizations in nine cities across the U.S. to improve maternal and infant health within each community. In 2021, over 1,800 advocates came together through a series of M-BAN learning webinars and a national M-BAN virtual summit to learn about the five strategies in the National Equity Framework and how, through aligned implementation of effective policies and practices, they can achieve together what they cannot achieve alone.
Mom and Baby Action Network
“Only by working together can we ensure that every mom and baby is healthy regardless of wealth, race, gender or geography.”
STACEY D. STEWART, President and CEO, March of Dimes
With the nearest birthing hospital hours away, access to care made Vania’s pregnancy difficult and stressful. March of Dimes Collective Impact Initiative is building partnerships with local public and private organizations in nine cities across the U.S. to improve inequities around maternal and infant health outcomes. Each collaborative focuses on centering communities through anti-racist and data-driven approaches, redistributing power and promoting systems transformation. The sites are focused on addressing the following strategies: Dismantling Racism & Unequal Treatment, Increasing Access to Care, Improving Economic Security and Building Connected Communities.
Collective Impact
“We traveled two hours to the nearest birthing hospital.”
VANIA BIGLEFTHAND, March of Dimes mom
March of Dimes is working to mitigate bias among maternal and infant health care professionals and to promote better outcomes for pregnant and postpartum people, newborns and their families through education and action. In 2021, more than 40,000 health care professionals were provided access to continuing education to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. Our implicit bias training was offered to 30,000 health care professionals to increase awareness and stimulate action in care settings nationwide. We also had training on topics such as reducing stigma in the care of women with maternal mental health and substance use disorders; care practices to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality; and strategies to improve care and outcomes in the NICU. More than 90 percent of participants reported an increase in knowledge and intent to change practice following these trainings.
Professional training
“If you have a trusting relationship with your provider and you know you’re going to be listened to, then you have much less anxiety and fear, and that lowers the risk of poor outcomes.”
CINDY BARTER, MD, MPH, March of Dimes Implicit Bias Training participant
For more than 80 years, March of Dimes donors, fundraisers, volunteers and supporters have represented the gold standard of rising to challenges. They knew families needed our help more than ever last year and they were instrumental in creating ways to connect with each other and to our mission to fight for the health of all moms and babies.
“We were able to find the support that we needed through March of Dimes and through other families so that we could survive in this chaotic world.”
KELLY COCO, March of Dimes mom
March for Babies
The U.S. remains among the most dangerous developed nations for childbirth, especially for women and babies of color. That’s why together with our incredible community—filled with caring parents who participate for so many reasons—we again held our largest annual fundraising event virtually in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and restrictions on in-person gatherings with the March for Babies: A Mother of a Movement™ campaign. Across the U.S. 41,000 individuals, companies and teams stepped up to raise more than $26 million to make America more equitable and ensure that every family is healthy.
“My granddaughter was born preterm with very little chance to survive. I love what March of Dimes means and what it stands for. I’m interested in making sure that we’re able to do something to support babies and their moms.”
SHARON, March for Babies team captain
Throughout 2021, our volunteers have done some pretty amazing things to help mobilize communities, raise critical awareness and funds and improve the health of moms, babies and families—including more than 11,000 National Service Partner members who participated in March for Babies, volunteer activations and advocacy actions. With 18,300 total volunteers joining our fight, we made an impact together by:
Volunteer engagement
“For parents and workers in the NICU, it’s not only physical, but also emotional stress. If we can nourish them through good food, then as a chef I’m doing my best.
MANEET CHAUHAN, celebrity chef and volunteer
Healthy moms. Strong babies. That’s what we fight for each day—and our Celebrity Advocate Council amplifies the impact of that work. Our eight members are deeply connected and involved with the work of March of Dimes, and continue to make a big difference for families. We added three new members in 2021, including influencer Whitney Port, podcast host Jade Roper Tolbert who engaged her 1.5 million followers for our It Starts With Mom campaign and actor Rob Huebel who supported us during March for Babies and also hosted Our Mission in Action on Giving Tuesday virtual experience. We’ve also continued our work with ongoing supporters, including musician Ally Brooke, Nick Lachey who supported March for Babies during Father’s Day, athlete and Olympic champion Allyson Felix who partnered in the Better Starts For All program that was covered by People, NBC News and Healthline, as well as actress and singer Tatyana Ali and TV personality and influencer Porsha Williams.
Influencers
“The more I talked about [my traumatic birthing experience], the more I’ve heard about other women who have experienced very similar things. It’s still bothersome that so many women are going through this in the year 2021.”
ALLYSON FELIX, Celebrity Advocate Council member
We’re online making it easy for people everywhere to engage with our cause, which is so important to them to help end preventable maternal health risks and death, end preterm birth and close the health equity gap for every family. Nearly 12 million people viewed our educational webpages to find information. We also partnered with Amazon Smile, where we received more than $50,000 in 2021 thanks to supporters choosing March of Dimes as their charity of choice. Since the launch of the TikTok channel on August 9, 2021, we’ve gained 7,751 followers, and acquired more than 7.6 million video views and 263,000 engagements (comments, likes and shares).
More ways to make a difference
“My family was connected to so many other families and was able to experience the resources that March of Dimes was able to offer.”
LAUREN LAROSA, NICU graduate
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Providing almost 800 military families educational information and baby items through Mission: Healthy Baby®. Donating nearly $125,000 of Meals that Matter to families in need around the country. Raising $500,000 in over 250 do-it-yourself fundraisers. Writing 18,700 Notes of Hope to families in the NICU or Notes of Gratitude to health care workers.
• • • •
We reached more than 50,000 families through our NICU initiatives, including the NICU Family Support® (NFS) program and the My NICU Baby® and Mi Bebé en la NICU apps, which were downloaded over 14,000 times. Thanks to you, we continued to support and innovate with hospital partners in working both on site and remotely with families who weren’t able to be present in the NICU due to the pandemic or other barriers, such as needing childcare or transportation. This year also marked NFS’ 20th anniversary, and we ended the year at 67 sites nationwide. With your support, we continued to protect the health of moms and babies during the COVID-19 pandemic in the NICU and wherever they were.
Karissa McLaren, NICU mom
50,000+
families reached through our NICU initiatives
NICU initiatives
families reached through our NICU Initiatives
$6.5
invested in 26 active grants and published 74 publications
MILLION INVESTED
208,000
webpage views garnered from our scientific reports
DRIVEN
ESSENTIAL
FIGHTING FOR EQUITY
HEAR THEIR STORY
TRUSTWORTHY
ILLUMINATING
The Women’s Health Center, MedStar— Baltimore, MD Birthland—Oakland, CA HHM Health—Dallas, TX Eastern Virginia Medical School— Norfolk, VA Antelope Valley Birth Center— Lancaster, CA Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Permian Basin—Odessa, TX Penn Family Care—Philadelphia, PA University of Kentucky—Lexington, KY Ascension Medical Group, Providence Women’s Health—Waco, TX Wayne State University—Detroit, MI Community Wellness of Tyler—Tyler, TX Central Phoenix OB/GYN—Phoenix, AZ Indiana University Health— Bloomington, IN
Fifty SPC sites exist around the country today, with 13 new ones trained in 2021:
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
ADRIANA COSTA, TV personality on “Bringing Home Your NICU Graduate During COVID-19” Healthy Moms, Strong Babies Webinar
$3
and more by It Starts With Mom through corporate partnerships and contributions
MILLION RAISED
30,000+
website views of our second annual It Starts With Mom Live
RELENTLESS
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
AMBITIOUS
FOCUSED
MEANINGFUL
99
partners who have joined the #BlanketChange movement in 2021
11,000
new advocates acquired by our #BlanketChange advocacy network
47,000
actions taken to call on policymakers to improve mom and baby health
320
partners dedicated to addressing inequities in maternal and infant health
300+
members engaged to develop agendas for how we’ll improve birth outcomes
30,000
health care professionals offered our implicit bias training
Professional education
ENDURING
INSPIRING
MOTIVATING
CONNECTING
$26
and counting through March for Babies: A Mother of a Movement™ fundraising event by 41,000 individuals, companies and teams
Throughout 2021, our volunteers have done some pretty amazing things to help mobilize communities, raise critical awareness and funds and improve the health of moms, babies and families—including more than 11,000 National Service Partner members who participated in March for Babies, volunteer activations and advocacy actions. With 18,300 total volunteers joining our fight, we made an impact together by: o Providing almost 800 military families educational information and baby items through Mission: Healthy Baby®. o Donating nearly $125,000 of Meals that Matter to families in need around the country. o Raising $500,000 in over 250 do-it-yourself fundraisers. o Writing 18,700 Notes of Hope to families in the NICU or Notes of Gratitude to health care workers.
“For parents and workers in the NICU, it’s not only physical, but also emotional stress. If we can nourish them through good food, then as a chef I’m doing my best.”
11,000+
National Service Partner members participated in March for Babies
$500,000
raised in over 250 do-it-yourself fundraisers
18,300
total volunteers engaged with March of Dimes
3 NEW
members added to our Celebrity Advocate Council, including Whitney Port, Jade Roper Tolbert and Rob Huebel
and counting garnered from our TikTok page since August 9, 2021
$50,000
received thanks to supporters choosing March of Dimes as their charity through Amazon Smile
on our educational webpages to find information
7.6
MILLION VIDEO VIEWS
12
MILLION VIEWS
