Скачать или смотреть Premature babies and families get support

CINCINNATI (Paula Toti) -- Premature babies come into this world as fighters.

They're fighting just to make it another day. But a new group is making sure them and their families aren't doing it alone. "Friends of Tiny Hearts" was started by some parents with very big hearts. Their pamphlet tells one of the youngest patients in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care U) at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center was born at 23 weeks and four days. Today, that baby is healthy.

That's the kind of hope parents at the NICU need to hear. Behind the statistics they need to meet others who have been there. Things get easier each day for Sam Crowley and his daughter Susan. At 28 weeks she's now 11 ounces larger than she was when she was born a month ago at one pound. A brand new world with babies born so small a wedding ring can fit around their arms.

Andrea Kimmey knows what Sam and his wife and three other daughters are going through. Her family has been there. Austin, now age 2, was born at 26 weeks. Andrea knew what she had to do when she brought Austin home. She wanted to help the staff and other NICU parents keep helping in the way she had been helped.

Some of those other families have helped Andrea and others start Friends of Tiny Hearts. Now little more than a year old the group has attracted 60 new members in recent months. They're raising money for NICU equipment, research and reaching out for education, support and hand holding so families like the Crowleys won't feel alone.

Andrea's goal for Tiny Hearts is to grow the group so it can provide more one on one support. Andrea is hoping they'll get enough volunteers that they can meet with women even before they give birth and then stay with them through the whole process of getting their baby home. The support group meets the last Thursday of the month at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

CLICK HERE if you'd like to know more about "Friends of Tiny Hearts."

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