Every year, half a million babies in the U.S. are born prematurely. Premature birth is the leading cause of newborn death and many life long disabilities. The funds we raise in the March for Babies support research that saves babies' lives. Medical breakthroughs funded by March of Dimes research helped save Gregory's life when he was born three months early, weighing barely two pounds. Today he is a freshman in college!  This is our chance to give back. I hope you can help support us as we work to help save more babies like Gregory. Thank you!

Why I Walk…

I walk for my three beautiful children, who bless my life each and every day.

I walk not just for my children, but for your children, and for the children of every mother, in the hope that their lives can be blessed as well.

I walk for every healthy full term baby that leaves the hospital in the excited arms of loving parents.

I walk for every premature baby who stays behind and fights for life.

I walk for the mothers of those premature babies, mothers who leave the hospital empty-handed and go home to empty nurseries full of unmet expectations.

I walk for the babies that never leave the hospital and for the families that grieve for them.

I walk because I’ve never experienced that 9th month feeling of being ready for my pregnancy to end.

I walk for the babies and their parents whose newborn days are spent in a NICU, a nursery filled with the beeps of machines and the quietness of babies who are too tiny and sick to cry.

I walk because I know far too much about intraventricular hemorrhages, ventilators, ultrasounds of the brain, lumbar punctures, apnea, heart monitors, blood transfusions, preterm labor, magnesium sulfate IVs, fetal fibronectin tests, and progesterone injections.

I walk because I hope you and every other mother never has to know about those things.

I walk because I will never forget the image of a tiny baby – the size of a dollar bill -  covered in wires, with a machine breathing for him, born after just six months of a healthy pregnancy, born before I had any idea that babies could be born that early.

And I walk because that baby is now a healthy 21 year old, my miracle baby.

I walk because I hope that someday that all babies are born healthy.

I walk because I want to help.

I walk because I believe that we can make a difference, and I walk because I believe that our children are worth it.