Jan. 6, 2003 — The Miracle Babies Support Foundation is helping to give premature infants a fighting chance at Roy L. Schneider Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. On Monday MBSF's President and Vice-President, Cleone Boston and Marilyn Chambers, donated educational materials and resuscitation mannequins to the hospital.
The educational books and videos will help inform parents how to perform such critical life-saving procedures as neonatal resuscitation. "It's extremely important that parents feel comfortable should they need to resuscitate their infant," Boston said.
The foundation also donated a breast pump to the hospital, thanks to a grant received from the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands.
Also during the morning's event, MBSF received a $2,000 donation from the Antigua-Barbuda Association of the Virgin Islands to help fund the foundation's ongoing work. Said Boston, "I'm very pleased with the donation and the fact they feel that our work is worthy."
Founded in 2001 by Boston and three other St. Thomas mothers whose babies were born prematurely, the foundation has helped Schneider hospital's neonatal intensive care unit obtain state-of-the-art equipment for the care of premature newborns. In 2003 the foundation donated a specialized machine to help open up infants' tiny lungs to enable breathing without the aid of a ventilator.
MBSF also provides support and encouragement to parents of premature babies, to show them that with the proper care, their infants can avoid long-term problems and live healthy lives.
About 10 percent of all births on St. Thomas are premature, some as much as 14 weeks before their due date.
For more information about the foundation, call Boston at 774-8876.
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