Birth Defects Awareness: Centers For Disease Control (CDC.org) · MarchOfDimes.org: March For Babies · Color Street · Birth Defect Conditions
Join the movement to fight for the health of every Mom and baby. The U.S. remains among the most dangerous developed nations for childbirth, especially for women and babies of color—but together we can make a difference.
By joining MarchForBabies.org: A Mother of a Movement™, you are lifting up communities, creating connections and taking action to make America a more equitable place and ensure that every family is healthy.
After ten days of his father sleeping in a hospital room chair, Max Richardson was born three months prematurely in 2020. He stayed in a neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) for 77 days following his birth. Some of his challenges included anemia, bradycardias, apnea spells, blood transfusions, two holes in his heart, and a very, very slow weight gain.
While most parents are excited to announce a numerical weight for their baby, Max’s agonized over every gram he lost. They cheered when he no longer needed an incubator to maintain his body temperature; pumped, froze, and transported breast milk for his feeding tube; and could hold him only for limited amounts of time out of fear of spreading germs.
Today Max is a healthy 11-month old, but that hasn’t erased his parents’ trauma, guilt, and constant sense of foreboding: To this day, the reason for his early birth is still unknown.
For January, $1 million has been pledged by the Color Street nail strips foundation as the National Signature Partner of the March for Babies campaign. Precious Gift and Hold Me Close are two limited-edition nail strips made to help raise awareness for infants and families affected by birth defects, in support of their partnership with March Of Dimes.