(Physicians and Nurses are available for interviews and photos)

DETROIT – Ask Detroit Medical Center ER nurse Jodie M. Cole, RN, BSN, what she thinks of the March of Dimes-sponsored “Prematurity Awareness Month” (November), and the veteran healthcare provider will light up like Comerica Park for a Tigers night game.

“As the mother of a premature baby who spent 26 days in the [DMC Hutzel Women’s Hospital] Neonatal Intensive Care Unit [NICU], I’m a huge fan of the DMC’s ongoing campaign to reduce preterm birth,” says the hard-working Detroit nurse.

“When my three-year-old Billy was born prematurely at Hutzel, I got an up-close look at just how hard it is for these premature babies to survive. Billy spent nearly a month in the NICU, but we were fortunate because he got through it and he’s doing just fine today.

“That experience taught me the vital importance of doing everything we can to prevent preterm-birth in Detroit, which currently has an 18-percent rate of premature-infant delivery.  We’ve got to do better than that – which is why I’m really excited about serving as a volunteer-educator during the November March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Month.”

Like Nurse Cole, a Wyandotte native who has two healthy older children along with three-year-old Billy, a pioneering team of DMC/Wayne State University (WSU) medical researchers has been making a determined effort in recent years to bring down the city’s soaring preterm-birth rate, which is the leading cause of infant mortality.

Sonia Hassan, MD, the Associate Dean for Maternal, Perinatal and Child Health at WSU and also a clinician at Hutzel Hospital, was among the dedicated team of researchers who achieved a major breakthrough a few years ago – after determining via exhaustive studies that women with short cervixes may be 50 percent more likely to deliver their babies early than women without them.

The research team at Wayne State University and the Perinatology Research Branch made international headlines with that discovery . . . and also with a follow-up finding that vaginal progesterone therapy may significantly reduce the rate of premature delivery in women with short cervixes.

A joint finding by the WSU School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health’s Perinatology Research Branch (located at the DMC), the progesterone breakthrough brought worldwide attention to the Detroit campaign to lower high preterm-birth rates in an urban population that has long been plagued by them.

In May of 2014, and enthusiastically supported by the Detroit Mayor’s Office, the same DMC/WSU team has launched a massive campaign to attack the preterm-birth problem at its roots by helping to educate future moms about the problem and also helping them get the skilled prenatal care that can greatly reduce their risk of delivering their babies early.

That education program, known as Make Your Date, is designed to help both providers (via Continuing Medical Education courses) and patients – along with health insurers – better understand how they can benefit from the recent headline-making breakthroughs in understanding the relationship between short cervix and preterm birth, along with the benefits of progesterone and other effective therapies. Services and connections are also provided through Make Your Date, such as transportation assistance, participant incentives and educational sessions.

“It’s very clear that Detroit’s preterm-birth rate of 18 percent is a major public health problem,” said Dr. Hassan, “we are excited by the implementation of the current treatments; however, our work in this area is certainly not done.” As a member of the National Prematurity Research Initiative Advisory Committee for the March of Dimes, Dr. Hassan explains the importance Prematurity Awareness Month plays in the education of this issue.

“The local rate of preterm birth is similar to that in economically challenged countries such as Malawi [in sub-Saharan Africa],” she added, “and lowering it is an essential goal if we want to improve infant mortality statistics in Detroit and elsewhere in the United States.”

Dr. Hassan also noted that Detroit Mayor Michael Duggan – the former president and CEO of the DMC – last year “asked that we develop a preterm-birth reduction plan, and we went to work right away at creating the Make Your Date program. 

“The bottom line on this effort is clear: it’s aimed at helping mothers-to-be to connect with the prenatal care they need in order to hopefully avoid the hazards of preterm birth.  That care should include appropriate ultrasound testing and diagnostics intended to identify pregnant patients with a short cervix, so they can be treated with progesterone therapy, where indicated.

“To accomplish that goal, we’re very pleased to have the assistance of the March of Dimes and its Prematurity Awareness Campaign, which will continue throughout November.”

 At the Michigan Chapter of the March of Dimes, meanwhile, State Director of Program Services and Government Affairs Kara Hamilton-McGraw echoed Dr. Hassan’s determination to help combat preterm birth in Detroit and throughout the Wolverine State. “One in ten babies are born too soon and may face lifelong consequences due to their early birth,” said Ms. Hamilton-McGraw. “March of Dimes and our partner organizations such as the Detroit Medical Center are asking everyone to spread the word on the serious problem of preterm birth.”

About the Detroit Medical Center:  Detroit Medical Center includes DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan, DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital, DMC Harper University Hospital, DMC Heart Hospital, DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, DMC Hutzel Women’s Hospital, DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, and DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital. Detroit Medical Center is a leading regional healthcare system with a mission of excellence in clinical care, research and medical education.

About Wayne State University:   Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students. Its School of Medicine is the largest single-campus medical school in the nation with more than 1,200 medical students. In addition to undergraduate medical education, the school offers master’s degree, Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs in 14 areas of basic science to about 400 students annually.