Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116803

Liza G. Cooper, LMSW, Chapter Programs, March of Dimes, 1275 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605, 914-997-4489, lcooper@marchofdimes.com, Susan Clifford, Chapter Program Support, March of Dimes, 1275 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605, and Scott D. Berns, MD, MPH, National Office, March of Dimes, 1275 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605.

Each year, over 400,000 babies are admitted to a Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the United States. The hospitalization of a newborn in a NICU can be one of the most overwhelming experiences for a parent. Support is critical to families, so they can be empowered to be primary caregivers of their infant. It is not enough, however, to identify a method for supporting families and to proceed with implementation. Instead, it is through the incorporation of the community's voice - local NICU families who endure this experience and NICU professionals who work in this setting every day - that the most effective programs, services and materials can be created. March of Dimes NICU Family Support, currently in 23 NICUs, is a national initiative aimed at bringing information and comfort to NICU families. Through partnerships between March of Dimes Chapters and local hospitals, NICU families, NICU professionals and March of Dimes staff work together to construct programs specifically for the community that the project serves. Most importantly, March of Dimes NICU Family Support designs innovative programs by building new communities of former and current NICU families who provide each other hope and understanding. This presentation will be the first of a panel, and provides an overview of the project; a detailed look at how the project involves the community in all efforts; a description of the support communities that the project has built; and preliminary results of a national evaluation.

Learning Objectives:

(1)Attendees will be able to describe the goals, structure and programmatic content of the March of Dimes national initiative NICU Family Support (
• Attendees will be able to identify the ways in which the community's voice is incorporated into each level of the project (
• Attendees will be able to delineate and conceptualize several support communities that have been created by the NICU Family Support project to bring information and comfort to families with sick newborns

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.