BY JANINE ANDERSON
Journal Times | Posted: Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:00 am
KENOSHA - Everyone, at some point, was a baby.
For about 40 weeks before that, everyone was a fetus. And before that, two gametes.
From gamete to birth - from two almost-cells to infant - everyone passed through the milestones of development. The neural tube, precursor to the spinal column, forms around the fourth week. A week later, the heart begins to beat.
Hands, fingers, feet and toes. Stomach, liver, eyes and ears. Skin. Hair. Fingerprints.
If a baby makes it to 37 weeks, it's considered full term. At 5 1/2 pounds, a healthy weight.
In Wisconsin alone, every week, 151 babies are born pre-term and 94 are at a low birth weight. Statewide, about one out of every 10 babies born live is born too soon.
Babies born prematurely, or at a low birth weight, are more likely to die than full-term babies. The March of Dimes works to make every birth a healthy one, with a goal of eliminating prematurity, birth defects and infant mortality.
That work is especially important in Racine, which consistently has one of the state's highest infant mortality rates.
This year, the organization revamped its annual walking event. WalkAmerica is now the March for Babies. Locally, it combined the Burlington, Racine and Kenosha events into one, hoping to boost participation and sponsorship.
Organizers expected more than 300 people at Saturday's event, a significant jump from the days of the individual community walks, when 50 to 75 people would participate in each walk. More than $60,000 was raised through the event, and 78 cents of every dollar will be spent on research or programs to protect babies' health.
"We felt WalkAmerica didn't give a good enough idea of why we're walking," said Shahree Scarborough, state communications and marketing coordinator for the March of Dimes. "All funds raised go back to funding community programs."
Case-New Holland had a team of about 75 people prepared to walk the four-mile route - from Carthage College south to the Small Boat Harbor and back again. The company's team was the largest at the event, attended by 350 to 400 people.
Larry Vail of Mount Pleasant is the chair of the local March of Dimes committee. He said this year's event is giving greater visibility to the group's message.
"The mission is really the important part," he said. "Reducing infant mortality and birth defects are really our goal. In southeast Wisconsin, those numbers are not going down."
Sheteaka Morgan of Racine is a wholesale credit analyst at CNH. She convinced her aunt, Lydia Nelson of Milwaukee, to join her at the walk. She said CNH participates every year.
"It's just a good cause," she said. "I know a lot of people with babies."
Lilly Ibarra, also a wholesale credit analyst for CNH, brought her sister-in-law Reyna Ibarra to walk with her.
"I know a couple people who had premature babies," said Lilly Ibarra of Racine. "My twins were premature."
Reyna Ibarra, also of Racine, said "This is the first time doing it, and I'm going to continue doing it.
"We'll be here every year. At least I will."
Diana Escribano of Kenosha was at the event with her family and friends. Her daughter, Nadia, now 7, was born more than 12 weeks early, and spent 77 days in neonatal intensive care.
"Basically, everything that could have went wrong did," she said. "She was on full life support and had a severe brain bleed. After 77 days, that's when our prematurity began."
Nadia needs therapy and is in special education programs. She has cerebral palsy, and "epilepsy is our biggest battle right now," Escribano said.
"She's our miracle. That's why we walk. It breaks my heart to know other people will go through what we did. Nothing can prepare you."
Escribano said they needed help after Nadia was born, but didn't know where to go. She sought out the March of Dimes, and they were there to support the family and help them figure out what to do and how to do it.
While the organization is known for its work with prematurity and birth defects, its research helps every baby, Scarborough said.
"We want to let people know that if you had a healthy baby, the March of Dimes is part of that," Scarborough said.
For example, the March of Dimes has been a driving force behind the campaign to educate women about the benefits of folic acid before and during pregnancy. Folic acid helps protect the fetus from developing neural tube defects; the March of Dimes estimates that 70 percent of defects could be prevented if women had high enough levels of folic acid in their diets prior to any pregnancy.