March for Babies
Central Alabama
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Baptist Health DeBoer Building
301 Brown Springs Road , Montgomery, AL 36117
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:30 AM
301 Brown Springs Road , Montgomery, AL 36117
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:30 AM
MEET THE 2025 AMBASSADOR FAMILY
THE ROWE FAMILY
THE ROWE FAMILY
On September 8, 2022, a tiny baby weighing just 1 lb 4 oz and 13 inches long was born in an emergency room under heartbreaking circumstances. Presumed stillborn, he was set aside for nearly 20 minutes—until he cried. He was resuscitated, but the delay caused severe brain bleeding due to his extreme prematurity.
The young mother made it clear that she did not want to keep the baby alive. She refused to hold him, name him, or acknowledge him. She left the hospital against medical advice and never returned.
The NICU team assumed Mateo wouldn’t survive, but he surprised them all. Week after week, he fought to live. Mateo’s NICU nurses became his family—his “NICU mamas.” They all advocated for him fiercely. Eventually, Mateo was strong enough to leave the hospital—but he had nowhere to go. No family. No home. Several foster families came to meet him, but caring for a medically fragile baby was too overwhelming. The plan became to place him in a nursing home.
On Mateo's first birthday, Mateo was in Birmingham for surgery. His NICU nurse Shelby went to visit him with cupcakes, not knowing he had suffered a massive seizure the night before and was now on a ventilator—alone in the ICU. When Shelby arrived, a social worker looked at her and said, “Why don’t you take him?” Without hesitation, Shelby said yes. Shelby called her husband Stuart. He had never met Mateo but knew of him. While speaking with her husband, Shelby tried to weigh the pros and cons, and Stuart stopped her by saying, “This is a human life. There are no cons.”
After 376 days in a hospital bed, Mateo came home. They didn’t know how long they would have him, but it turns out, Mateo had exactly what they needed. He has forever changed their lives and hearts. Their daughters—Laynie (15), Addie (13), and Caroline (9)—love him fiercely. On December 30, 2024, the Rowe family formally adopted Mateo.
Mateo is now two and a half years old. He has cerebral palsy, visual impairment, hydrocephalus, epilepsy, and requires oxygen and a feeding tube. And yet, he is fearfully and wonderfully made—just as God intended. Shelby often wonders: What if Mateo’s birth mother had access to the right education, healthcare, or support? What if the emergency room had been better equipped? What if there had been a safety net?
That’s why we walk—for Mateo, and for every baby like him.
March of Dimes fights to give every family the best possible start—by ending preventable maternal and infant death, promoting healthy full-term pregnancies, and closing health equity gaps.
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