| The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth.
The March of Dimes North Carolina Chapter is working at all levels to ensure the health of mothers and babies. By leveraging its resources as part of a large national non-profit organization, the March of Dimes North Carolina Chapter is able to form local alliances and secure partnerships with government officials, state and local agencies, medical institutions and hospitals, and other groups. By working together, we have a greater impact on maternal and infant health all across the state.
- The March of Dimes serves on the State Infant Mortality Collaborative, an initiative created by the CDC to look at infant mortality data and recommend initiatives to reduce infant mortality in North Carolina.
- The March of Dimes is a very active partner with WATCH (Women And Tobacco Coalition for Health), a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary coalition whose purpose is to share and disseminate information around women’s health and exposure to tobacco.
The March of Dimes provides public and professional health education.
- The March of Dimes North Carolina Chapter provides public education materials which include brochures, booklets, posters and videos on a variety of pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and infant related issues. Items are available in easy-to-read formats and many are available in Spanish.
- The Healthy Babies Healthy Business Web site marchofdimes.com/hbhb provides company intranets and wellness programs with the latest high-quality pregnancy and newborn health information at no cost.
- Thousands of families access our website, www.shareyourstory.org to share their stories, participate in online discussions about premature babies, and meet other NICU families.
- For health care professionals, the March of Dimes North Carolina Chapter offers a Prematurity Symposium, nursing modules on Perinatal health topics, grand rounds and support-for-provider forums. Additional professional health opportunities include:
· Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of NC Annual Conference
· NC / SC Perinatal Associations Annual Educational Conference
· Gravidas At Risk Conference / Wake Forest University Dept of Ob/Gyn
The March of Dimes provides community services by awarding grants to local agencies and organizations.
- In 2006, the March of Dimes North Carolina Chapter will invest more than $335,000 in grants to local communities, funding programs to decrease premature birth, increase access to prenatal care, and educate women and men about having healthy babies. All the grants and community awards for 2006 can be found on this web site at Mission in Action.
National Research grants explore ways to prevent birth defects and prematurity.
- The national March of Dimes currently funds 9 research grants to North Carolina universities and hospitals totaling $2,085,319.
- The national March of Dimes had more than $79 million in active research grants in 2005.
- Since the victory over polio, the March of Dimes has worked to protect our nation’s infants from birth defects, premature birth and other threats to their health. Millions of babies have been saved from death or disability. The babies in every state benefit from national research grants funded by the March of Dimes. And we still work toward the day when every baby has the best possible chance to be born healthy.
On the legislative front, the March of Dimes lobbies for access to care and other maternal and infant health issues.
- The March of Dimes is committed to maintaining as active, well-respected, non-partisan presence in the political arena.
- Our goal is to assure that mothers and babies remain as an essential part of the state budget.
- Our current advocacy issues on the state level are to retain funding for the NC Birth Defects Monitoring Program and the NC Folic Acid Campaign; to strengthen and safeguard Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and infants and Health Choice-the children’s health insurance program.
- The North Carolina Chapter is working with chapters all across the nation to get Congress to pass the Federal Prematurity Research Initiative which would encourage investment of more public and private research dollars to identify causes of preterm labor and prematurity and to identify and test promising interventions.
There Remains Much Work to Do!
Premature birth is the number one killer of newborns, a major cause of serious health problems and can happen to any family.
- Half a million babies are born prematurely every year and the number continues to rise.
- 1 in 8 families is affected by premature birth.
- In North Carolina, more than 16,000 or about 13.6% of all births are born prematurely every year.
- In an average week in North Carolina, 55 babies are born very preterm which is less than 32 weeks.
- Almost one quarter of women of childbearing age in North Carolina have a high risk for having a baby born prematurely.
- Premature birth costs society billions of dollars with the average hospital stay for a preterm baby being $41,610 while a full term baby with no complications costs only $2,830.
- In North Carolina Prematurity is the leading cause of death through out the first year of life.
- Those babies that do survive may face lifelong health consequences such as chronic lung problems, mental retardation, blindness, and cerebral palsy.
- The March of Dimes is leading a national effort to save babies from premature birth by funding research to find the causes and by supporting local programs that offer hope and help to families with a baby in neonatal intensive care.
- The March of Dimes has an interactive web site – www.marchofdimes.com/peristats - which provides free, easy to access national, state, and county perinatal health data, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, infant mortality, prenatal care, health insurance coverage, and more.
- For more information on prematurity go to www.marchofdimes.com/prematurity.
In 2004, more than 75% of our expenses went to funding our program activities including research, advocacy, community services and public and professional education.
For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at http://www.marchofdimes.com/ or its Spanish language Web site at http://www.nacersano.org/. |
