Three teams from the Wayne State University School of Medicine raised $5,000 leading up to the March for Babies (held April 29), a 3.4-mile walk to support the nonprofit March of Dimes, routed throughout WSU's main and medical campuses in midtown Detroit.
The donations will provide the March of Dimes with financial support for prenatal wellness programs, research grants, advocacy efforts and newborn intensive care unit support programs for families.
More than 50 walkers affiliated with the School of Medicine walked in March for Babies, representing the Perinatology Research Branch, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Dean's Office.
Michigan's rate of preterm birth routinely exceeds the national average. The state Department of Community Health reports that for every 1,000 live births in the state, eight infants die before their first birthday, largely because of premature birth.
School of Medicine Dean Valerie M. Parisi, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., and Sonia Hassan, M.D., director of the Center for Advanced Obstetrical Research at the PRB, were among the event speakers and first walkers to officially begin the event.
"The United States consistently records higher infant mortality rates than most other developed countries," Dr. Parisi told the crowd of hundreds Sunday morning.
Although states improved their rates of premature birth, March of Dimes graded the U.S., and Michigan, with an overall C in its 2011 Premature Birth Report Card.
"We must do better. We owe it to the mothers and children of Michigan to do better," Dr. Parisi said.
The PRB is the only center of its kind devoted to maternal-fetal medical research and the battle against premature birth, and has assisted more than 20,000 mothers at risk for premature birth, most of them uninsured, and discovered numerous medical breakthroughs to treat and prevent premature birth.
March for Babies began across the nation in 1970 and has raised more than $2 billion to date to benefit moms and babies. It is the nation's oldest walk fundraiser.