Premature Births Puzzle Doctors
By: Sarah Fortune
Updated: April 24, 2010
More than $100,000 was raised this morning during the Annual March for Babies. The money will be spent on research to find out what's causing so many premature births and birth defects something many parents are anxious to know.
Hundreds took part in the March for Babies helping moms have full term pregnancies. “Every week in Indiana alone 226 babies are born premature half of those are a complete mystery," said Mike Hall with March for Babies. Participants picked between a one or three mile course through Downtown Evansville. Each year more than half a million babies are born premature and statistics show that number grows every day.
"Every single baby born in our family in the past seven years has been born premature," said Jill Viera. She and her twin sister were born premature at just 25 weeks only weighing 1.5 pounds each. They formed The Cousin Crew which consists of family members who were also born premature. The Cousin Crew now has 35 members. "We've defiantly grown and it's something we don't want to be growing in. But every year we've had another baby born into our family premature. We still want more babies in our family but we want healthy full term babies," said Vieira.
Healthy full term babies are the ultimate goal. Babies that are born too soon have a higher risk of death or having disabilities. Saturday's participants did more than just walk they're working to reduce the number of babies born premature.
