November is Prematurity Awareness Month—an important time to raise awareness of the maternal and infant health crisis of preterm birth and ask for lifesaving donations in honor of World Prematurity Day, November 17.
The U.S. remains among the most dangerous developed nations for childbirth. Prematurity affects too many moms and babies and is fueled significantly by disparities in our health care system, communities and institutions.
We’ll come together for action and advocacy during our Maternal and Infant Health Awareness Week beginning November 15 as we announce the 2022 March of Dimes Report Card and fight prematurity.
Join us by donating today and on November 17, World Prematurity Day, to help make sure all moms, babies and families get
the best possible start.
Take action to support moms and babies
The Mamagenda for #BlanketChange
Advocate with us to bring health equity and better access to care for every family.
Take action
Start a fundraiser
Make a meaningful gift to support healthy moms and strong babies with a
Facebook fundraiser.
Start now
Create an event
Creating a do-it-yourself fundraising campaign is
a fun and easy way to
support families.
Create
Join our Team Streaming Challenge
Team up on Nov. 13 – 19 for a fundraising event that challenges teams of up to 15 streamers to raise the most in support of our fight for the health of families.
Go to Tiltify
Maternal and Infant Health Week
Coming to terms with not going to term: a couple's journey through preterm birth
Guilt is a powerful emotion, especially as a parent. “What’s wrong with me? Why is my body failing our family?” These are questions Katie Wilton asked herself throughout her pregnancy, as she experienced complications.
Katie hemorrhaged for the first time when she was 22 weeks pregnant, which continued for the next eight weeks. “About 25 percent of the blood in my body I had lost from all the hemorrhaging,” she says. But doctors couldn’t figure out what was causing the bleeding.
While Katie was experiencing guilt regarding the “failure” of her body, Kevin was faced with a different set of questions: “What can I do to help my wife in this situation? How can I be supportive? How do I fix this?” The hardest part for him, on top of having no answers, was not being able to do anything.
After having two hemorrhages three days apart, Katie was brought into triage to be assessed—that’s when doctors discovered she was in preterm labor. Five days later Colette was born at 30 weeks, weighing just 3 pounds, 1 ounce. It wasn’t until after she was born that it was concluded that there were multiple placental abruptions.
March of Dimes played an important role in saving Colette’s life. She received surfactant, a treatment developed by March of Dimes-funded research. Katie says, “Colette would have greater pulmonary issues than she does if we didn't get that to protect her lungs.”
Today Katie volunteers with March of Dimes, and she advocated on behalf of the health of moms and babies on Advocacy Day for our March for Change campaign. “I’m extremely passionate about advocating to get all parents access to the specialized maternal health care that they need,” she says.
March of Dimes’ work advocating for policies that address the nation's health equity gap and increase equitable access to care—such as increasing Medicaid postpartum extension coverage from 60 days to 12 months—is as critical as ever. Together, we can continue protecting the health of families by funding research, providing resources and programs and advocating for policies to help parents throughout
their pregnancies.
November 15
November 19
March of Dimes
Report Card
National Family
Volunteer Day
Stay tuned for the launch of our annual report card as we present the latest data on the health of moms and babies and call on policy makers to take action to improve the health of our nation’s families. Follow our social channels to stay in touch with the report’s findings.
Help provide Meals That Matter to moms and families who need our support to
be healthy and strong. Come together and take part in your own way, on your own time.
Light it purple, including your office or home. And wear purple to show your support. Be sure to share your baby photos and stories with our community on social using #WorldPrematurityDay and @marchofdimes.
Help us support moms and babies and raise
awareness of the prematurity health crisis.
Each year in the
U.S., 1 in 10 babies
is born preterm
Donate
Tune in
Nov. 15, 8:45 a.m. ET, livestream for the National Press Club Event on the new March of Dimes Report
Card findings.
Watch Nov. 15
Mamagenda
Delivery Day
We’ll deliver our Mamagenda for #BlanketChange manifesto, an emergency
call to action for the new Congress, providing irrefutable data about the maternal health
crisis in America.
Healthy Moms, Strong
Babies Webinar
Tune in to our next Healthy Moms, Strong Babies webinar on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. ET to hear how learnings from the 2022 March of Dimes Report Card are helping
us drive the Mamagenda for #BlanketChange
to give all families an equitable, healthy
and safe start.
Watch their video
Stay tuned for the launch of our annual report card as we present the latest data on the health of moms and babies and call on policy makers to take action to improve the health of our nation’s families. Follow our social channels to stay in touch with the report’s findings.
March of Dimes
Report Card
We’ll deliver our Mamagenda for #BlanketChange manifesto, an emergency
call to action for the new Congress, providing irrefutable data about the maternal health crisis in America.
Mamagenda
delivery day
Watch their video