World Prematurity Day

Today is World Prematurity Day. Last year (and the years before last that I wasn't so aware of the day) it was just Prematurity Awareness. This year, we get the whole world involved. Something like 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely every year. 1 million of those don't survive.

Last year, I wrote I tried to do my part of spreading the awareness by posting our story of Jaxon's birth. Never in a million years did I expect that one of the people that read it would be a mom whose twins were born prematurely when artificial surfectant was being tested. Her babies were among the first to use it. When I read her comment on my blog last year, I was so grateful to her and her babies for participating in a study that probably helped my son breathe 18 years later, I cried. (Today her babies are 20 years old! Happy birthday and thank you to them!)

Until Jax was born I was aware of premature births, but not aware of it. No one expect their baby to be born too early. 2 years, 6 months and 2 days later I am painfully aware of it. Last year's awareness day made me realize that I (whether I wanted to be or not) am apart of a community of preemie families. And that each of those families is tied to every other preemie baby that was, is and will be born from here on out. The work that the March of Dimes ties us all together and knowing that ... floors me. It also makes me feel like Jax, Josh and I aren't so alone in our story.

On this day, I hope you will be more aware of those 13 million babies, their families, all the doctors and nurses that work with those families, and what the March of Dimes does to help all of those people.

To our families and friends, I hope you realize how much we appreciated your support and love in those first 20 days. To any doctors or nurses that work with NICU babies, the work you do is amazing, though sometimes underappreciated. To our local March of Dimes chapter, especially Collette, thank you for checking in on us and answering our questions. And to that mom & her twins as well as any other preemie families whose story is tied to ours, thank you.