http://www.everybabyhasastory.org

 We are observing Prematurity Awareness Day and Month by incorporating a celebration of all babies—those born prematurely, those born healthy, those who were lost, and those whose lives hang in the balance. We are inviting everyone to read and share stories about babies and connect with other families. Together, we can raise awareness about premature birth and other serious threats to infant health and help give every baby a healthy start.

We invite families to share stories about the babies in their lives. Once entered, the stories can be read either by scrolling over the map or by entering a zip code to find stories in specific communities.

A national tour is underway for Every Baby Has a Story. Starting on October 18th in Washington, D. C. a donated bus is travelling coast-to-coast gathering baby stories in a dozen or so major markets, ending its tour in New York City on Prematurity Awareness Day, November 13th. Along the way the bus, staffed by veterans of  “street marketing,” is generating media coverage, raising awareness, and engaging the public. The story and photo of our State Ambassador, Deni Federico, is featured on the bus.

Ideas to Incorporate into Your Prematurity Awareness Month Plans
You can set up a computer at events and invite parents to enter their stories or you can present them with a flyer, inviting them to submit their stories from home. You may want to just have one computer available for people to read the stories. You may wish to print out stories on the site and hang them around your event area for participants to read.

If you are involving a preemie family story in your event, be sure to have them enter their story before the event.

For more information, contact sschulberger@marchofdimes.com.  If you plan to conduct a group activity, be sure to register at the same e-address so we can include your information in a nationwide web listing of Prematurity Awareness Month events.