In hospitals across the country, from Pennsylvania to Nevada, March of Dimes NICU Family Support® is helping parents celebrate their baby’s first Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. NICU families will make holiday memories at several hospitals including Geisinger Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and St. Rose Dominican Hospital – Siena Campus.
Some of the planned activities include:
- Holiday Photo Shoot: At Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA, volunteer professional photographers will be available to take family holiday photos. Families will receive print and digital copies of their photos as a gift.
- Winter Carnival and New Year’s Eve Photo Shoot: At the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, NICU families are invited to participate in several activities at the hospital including a winter carnival, winter onesie decorating and a New Year’s Eve photoshoot where babies can have their photos taken to mark the special occasion.
- Holiday Family Dinner and Baby Shower: St. Rose Dominican Hospital – Siena Campus outside of Las Vegas, NV will be hosting a holiday family dinner and baby shower event. This particularly meaningful event is for families who delivered prematurely and were never able to have their own baby shower. The event is hosted in partnership with My Gift and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.
Each year in the United States, more than 380,000 babies are born preterm — that’s one baby every two seconds. Even babies born just a few weeks too soon can face serious health challenges and are at risk for lifelong disabilities including breathing problems, vision loss, cerebral palsy, and intellectual and developmental delays.
In partnership with over 100 hospitals across the country, March of Dimes offers NICU Family Support®, a program which provides information and support to families during their baby’s stay in the NICU. This program helps more than 75,000 families each year.