Christopher Pinckney is the son of a Clemson University PRTM Professor, Harrison Pinckney IV, and Helene Cooke. Christopher was born 5 weeks too soon causing him to spend 2 and a half weeks in the NICU. At 31 weeks-the Pinckney's arrived at the hospital, Helene was admitted and transferred to a delivery room where she was given magnesium to slow the contractions down and steroids to help the baby’s lungs develop. Once Helene's water broke, She was transferred to a room in labor and delivery. After a few hours of labor Helene and Harrison welcomed their second son at 2:44pm. He weighed in at 5lbs., 12oz. and was 21 inches. After a few minutes with mommy, Christopher was taken to NICU1 for further evaluation. After spending a day in NICU1, Christopher was moved to NICU2. There he and mommy worked together to get him strong enough to go home. Over the next two and a half weeks, much of the attention was given to Christopher’s energy. As a result of the early birth, he did not have enough strength to regulate his temperature, nurse sufficiently, and supply energy to all of his organs. This resulted in jaundice. With a combination of wonderful service from NICU staff & doctors, Christopher was allowed to go home after 2.5 weeks in the NICU. The research supported by the March of Dimes was most impactful in the days leading to March 27th. The doctors had the insight and knowledge for delaying birth a few days and knew that steroid shots were needed to speed up the lung development process. As a result of these two steps, Christopher was able to grow and develop a lot more quickly in NICU as breathing was not a challenge that he had overcome.