Bloggers Unite to Fight for Preemies on Nov. 17th

On November 17, 2009 you can help raise awareness about premature births by blogging about the March of Dimes Fight for Preemies.

Join Bloggers Unite and the March of Dimes in November for Prematurity Awareness Month® to spread the word and raise awareness about their fight against premature births.

Before November 17th
Before the November 17th "Blog-in" you can help spread the word in several ways.

• Send email messages to your family and friends.
• Tweet about the March of Dimes (@marchofdimes) on Twitter.
• Follow the March of Dimes on Facebook and post messages.
  
• Put a March of Dimes badge and/or a banner on your blog or website.
• Put a Bloggers Unite badge on your website.
• Sign up for the Bloggers Unite, Fight for Preemies event.

Plan to Blog on November 17th
November 17 is the day that was chosen The March of Dimes to encourage bloggers to fight for preemies. On November 17th, bloggers are asked to post a blog on November 17th for "a baby you love and to help others."

More on Bloggers Unite
Bloggers Unite is an attempt to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place.

It is their hope that by asking bloggers to write about a particular subject on 1 day of the month, a single voice can be joined with thousands to help make a difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or supporting 3rd world countries.

More Articles on the March of Dimes

Dyer KA. 2009. NICU Family Support from the March of Dimes. NICU Parent Support Blog.
Dyer KA. 2009. Coming This November...Prematurity Awareness Month for the March of Dimes. NICU Parent Support Blog.
Dyer KA. 2009. March of Dimes Supporting NICU Families with NICU Family Support. Type-A Mom.

NICU Parent Support Blog: Blogging without Obligation

I loved the concept of "Blogging without Obligation" when I stumbled across it and knew it would be something I would adopt for the NICU Parent Support Blog. The concept was developed by graphic + mixed media artist and sometimes blogger, Tiffini Elektra of the tartx website.

She came up with the concept of BWO after "coming across what seemed to be the 4000th or so post on someone’s blog starting with 'I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile'" and decided it was time to "rethink what makes a good blog and the expectations that have come to be part of it."

Blogging Without Obligation means you blog:

• Because you shouldn't have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.

• Because its okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.

• Because its okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.

• Because sometimes less is more.

• Because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.

• Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone.

• Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be "bloggable".

• Because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won't be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time...

As has Journey of Hearts, the NICU Parent Support Blog has also been a labor of love, another site from which I do not earn an income. This blog is primarily a hobby. It has been created as a resource and a way to provide information for other NICU Parents to help them through their NICU adventures rather than blogging with daily updates.

I hope that you find the blog postings here useful as I continue to add information and resources that would have been helpful for us during our NICU stay.

Teaching Students to Write Stories out of NICU Experiences and Devastation

I have always been a believer in learning from the losses and the challenges that one faces in life and then using those experiences to help others facing similar crises, but are earlier in the process.

Kate Hopper has taken her own experiences as a NICU parent to a new level. She used her own NICU story of a preterm birth due to preeclampsia and the stories of other NICU parents and loss.

I was very impressed with her blog entry on heartbreak and hoping that I read this week. She shares her lesson plans to include two stories of heartbreak with her students in her "Mother Words" course at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

Her selections for the week included Susan Ito’s "Samuel" and Suzanne Kamata's "You’re So Lucky." Kate writes that she "chose these pieces to spark discussion about point of view, emotional distance, and writing about heartbreak." Her goal in sharing the stories was to teach her students how to write "heartbreak without sentimentality, craft stories out of devastation."

Learning from NICU Experiences
In the graduate course that I taught last Spring on Grieving Family Systems, I had my graduate students read the formal research papers that I had written on Identifying, Understanding and Working with Grieving Parents in the NICU to give them the perspective of grief in the NICU parents. One of my students was a former NICU nurse, who found the information invaluable.

The older I get, the more that I believe we are given these experiences to learn from and then to turn around and teach others from our losses. Perhaps this is one of the better ways of making meaning from the loss.

Sources:
Hopper K. Heartbreak and Hoping. Mother Words: Mother's Who Write Blog. July 25, 2007.
Dyer KA. Identifying, Understanding, and Working with Grieving Parents in the NICU, Part II: Strategies. Neonatal Network. June/July 2005; 24: 27-40.
Dyer KA. Identifying, Understanding, and Working with Grieving Parents in the NICU, Part I: Identifying and Understanding Loss and the Grief Response. Neonatal Network. May/June 2005; 24: 35-46.



Photo Source: Nadya Smolskaya Paper Work. Permission to Use.