Oral

In 2003 the March of Dimes made a commitment to confront the most serious perinatal health problem in the United States: preterm birth. The March of Dimes collaborated with many organizations and individuals to address the problem in a national campaign to prevent prematurity, and progress could not have been made without these partnerships. After rising for decades the nation's preterm birth rate has declined for the past five years to a low of 11.7 percent in 2011. In 2008 the March of Dimes declared prematurity a global campaign and expanded its prevention activities internationally. The presentations in this session will summarize key accomplishments and describe the activities and future plans of the Prematurity Campaign, both in the United States and abroad. More hard work is ahead to achieve the Prematurity Campaign goal of 9.6 percent preterm births by 2020.

Session Objectives: Discuss the accomplishments of the March of Dimes-led campaign to address the problem of preterm birth. Describe the activities and future plans of the Prematurity Campaign to prevent preterm birth both in the United States and abroad.