43
Families tell stories of premature births
By ROBERT CONNELLY
BOARDMAN
Tiffany Hol- brook and her mother, Ginnie Yeager, added more green and turtles to a poster for Holbrook’s son, Rowan, who died May 11, 2014.
Rowan was born at 28 weeks gestation and weighed only 3 pounds. Holbrook went into surgery, and Rowan was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.
Holbrook was supposed to see Rowan in the NICU after her surgery, but she didn’t.
“People think if they’re in the NICU they’re going to be fine and they’re going to be good,” Holbrook said. “I had every intention of thinking that my son will be in the NICU when I woke up and he’d be fine and I’ll be bringing him home in a couple months. And that wasn’t the case.”
Holbrook and Yeager were among several people making posters Thursday night at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, 7680 Glenwood Ave. The families gathered to make posters for the 2015 March for Babies, a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. That event will be May 17 beginning at noon at the WATTS Center on the campus of Youngstown State University.
Holbrook and her husband, Joshua, both of Niles, sold 58 shirts for their March of Dimes team.
“It’s been amazing just to know that people are still thinking about my son,” Holbrook said. The back of the shirts will read “walking in the steps he cannot.”
Kelly Robertson, 42, of New Middletown was making a poster with her 4-year-old triplets — Mathew, Morgan and Michael — who were born prematurely at 29.3 weeks gestation. As Mathew looked at a picture of himself on the Robertsons’ poster from a year ago, he imitated the pose he had in the NICU.
The Robertson family was working on this year’s photo, with each child picking out a favorite color paper to add to the poster board.
Connie Knight, Mahoning Valley community director for March of Dimes, began as a volunteer after her son, Ryan, was born prematurely. “It’s because of the March of Dimes that he’s still alive,” she said. “You have a range of stories. ... Unfortunately, we have too many babies that don’t survive.”
Knight pointed out that 1 in 8 babies in Ohio is born too soon and the Buckeye State ranks 47 out of 50 states in infant mortality rates. She further said, however, that there is a $10 million research collaboration ongoing in the state for preventing premature birth, birth defects and infant mortality.
“March of Dimes is really just a big reason why” my kids are here, Robertson said. “Their life-saving medications really helped open their lungs. ... Their research has helped so many people and premature babies, and without the research at March of Dimes, a lot of these babies wouldn’t have made it.”