Three Minutes of Your Day

Normally, I am not a huge fan of Internet petitions, but I’m making an exception because this is actually tied–albeit in a roundabout way–to the Internet. Google, as you know, sometimes creates what is called a “doodle” in order to present a visual image for a holiday or to raise awareness for a cause. They’ve had some pretty random doodles in the past. Beyond Halloween, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving (both Canadian and American!), they’ve celebrated Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday and the Lunar New Year.

The March of Dimes is trying to get Google to create a doodle for Prematurity Awareness Day (November 14). Prematurity is a major condition affecting as many as 12% of all births — that’s over 476,000 babies a year. And that rate is rising. As you know, this cause is near and dear to my heart because the twins were born prematurely and spent three weeks in the NICU. Both were IUGR and had stopped growing inutero. Anything that benefits the March of Dimes benefits all of our future children. Because that’s the thing–you never know when it’s going to be you who is affected. So take this time to help out others now so the research continues. And yes, this last part is meant to cause major guilty feelings if you don’t take the three minutes to click on the link…

Click here to sign this petition (Mom–that means click on the hyperlinked word “here”). And pass it along to everyone you know. And raise prematurity awareness. And get the March of Dimes more funding possibly in the process. And go thank Julie at A Little Pregnant for posting this on her blog and raising my awareness as to its existence.