The March of Dimes commits to the updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (2019-2030) through the following actions.
March of Dimes commits to continuing its prematurity prevention efforts through 2020, working to reduce the preterm birth rate in the United States to 8.1% or less, and helping to build a global constituency to reduce the toll of death and disability caused by preterm birth worldwide.
The March of Dimes supports:
- Biomedical research aimed at delineating the multi-factorial causes of premature birth;
- Collaboration with other maternal child health organizations, World Health Organization and lower-income country partners to enhance the quality and accessibility of preconception, prenatal, interconception and newborn care;
- Provide education and consumer awareness to promote healthy behaviors that reduce risk of prematurity;and
- Provide information and comfort to parents of premature babies.
March of Dimes commits to supporting five transdisciplinary research centers at leading institutions in the USA and one in the United Kingdom on premature birth prevention until 2020. The centers take a team science approach to discovery research directed at identifying the unknown causes of preterm birth and new ways to prevent it. March of Dimes expects this commitment will lead to improved identification and treatment of women at risk of preterm labor.
From 2014 – 2020, March of Dimes commits to continuing to lead World Prematurity Day (WPD) held annually on 17 November as an open platform for organizations to focus attention on premature birth as the leading cause of death of children under age 5, and to advocate for further action on prevention. An expected outcome from this effort is increased public awareness of the problem of preterm birth an enhanced political support for public programs and research that can improve prevention of prematurity. Every year, the international community—including parents, professionals, NGOs, hospitals, governments and others—show their support for World Prematurity Day on November 17, by participating in country-based advocacy and awareness events and through social media platforms like: http://www.facebook.com/WorldPrematurityDay.
