Special guests that attended the launch were:

• Dr. Jennifer Howse - President, March of Dimes
• Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, member of the March of Dimes Board of Trustees
• Michelle OBama, Vice President for External and Community Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals and wife of Senator Barack Obama (D, IL)
• John A. Brandecker, Vice President, University of Chicago Hospitals
• Gail J.H. Wilson, State Director, Illinois Chapter, March of Dimes
• Mike Osborne, Area Business Director, Central Region, Medimmune, Inc.

The March of Dimes named the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital as one of 23 sites in the nation to implement NICU Family Support.  March of Dimes NICU Family Support addresses the needs of families throughout the hospitalization, during the transition home, and in the event of a newborn death.  NICU Family Support also includes a professional development component to provide hospital NICU staff with support and educational opportunities.   The project is led by a March of Dimes staff person who has professional NICU experience.  An advisory committee made up of graduate NICU parents and NICU professionals will be involved in selecting activities and providing direct services to current NICU families.  Each NICU family will receive a March of Dimes Parent Care Kit including informational books and materials to chart their baby’s milestones.

As part of the pilot project, Illinois' NICU support program will design a module to be tested over the course of the coming three years and distributed to March of Dimes chapters across the country.  Potential modules include antepartum support, comprehensive photography, transport, sibling support, transition to home communication, bereavement, multiples, low-literacy, teen parents, breast feeding, developmental care, making difficult decisions and post-partum depression. 

By 2007, as part of its prematurity campaign, the March of Dimes will establish NICU family support in 50 or more level III NICUs serving 33,000 urban and rural families across the United States.

The University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, the newest pediatric hospital in the city, opened in February 2005. The hospital, designed to be at the forefront of pediatric care, provides a state-of-the-art, family-focused environment for all in-patient pediatric services at the University of Chicago Hospitals. It includes two 30-bed medical/surgical units, predominantly private rooms and a two-story, 30-bed pediatric intensive care unit. The neonatal intensive care unit, one of the largest in the Midwest, has 65 beds. The new hospital also has six surgical suites, with operating rooms, 21 preoperative areas and recovery rooms designed to suit the specific needs of pediatric and newborn surgical patients.

The March of Dimes is grateful to MedImmune, Inc. for providing financial support for the first year of the project in Chicago. For more information about the NICU project and ways to support it, contact ldye@marchofdimes.com.

We are currently looking for parents who have experienced a premature birth and have been out of the NICU for at least 6 months to join our NICU Action Committee(NAC). This committee is entrusted with the selection, development and implementation of family centered policies, programs and activities for the University of Chicago Comer Childrens' NICU. Each member will be committed to making the NICU a more comforting setting for families. If you have any questions or are interetsed in joining please call Minerva Esparza at 773 702-7870.