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News Release

March 2, 2007

Contact: Maureen McGuire, 860-679-4523
e-mail: mmcguire@nso.uchc.edu

Media Alert

Parents Will Help Dedicate a New Family Resource Room

Ribbon Cutting is Tuesday, March 6th at the UConn Health Center

FARMINGTON, CONN. – Parents of babies who started their lives in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) will join officials from the March of Dimes and the University of Connecticut Health Center on Tuesday, March 6, at 10 a.m. to help dedicate a new resource room exclusively for the parents, family members and siblings of babies in the NICU.

The new Family Resource Room is located within the Health Center’s NICU, in the main building, and is a result of the Health Center’s recent collaboration with the March of Dimes. Last spring, the March of Dimes selected the Health Center as the first NICU Family Support Project in Connecticut, as part of its national campaign to enhance resources and support to families of babies who are born prematurely.

In Connecticut, the March of Dimes Family Support Project is funded by the NewAlliance Foundation.

The creation of the Family Resource Room is one of many projects the March of Dimes has initiated at the Health Center, along with a variety of support activities for parents and siblings as well as the dissemination of new educational materials for parents and family members.

The Family Resource Room

For the Family Resource Room, with the support and assistance from the Health Center, the March of Dimes refurbished a room just across the hall from the intensive care nursery. It is complete with comfortable furniture, a microwave oven, a refrigerator, TV and DVD player, laptop computer, books for young siblings and more.

“This is a special place where parents can take a deep breath, check their e-mail, prepare a meal or just relax and compose their thoughts for a few moments,” said Jeanne Lattanzio, the family support specialist who coordinates the March of Dimes program at UConn Health Center.

Ms. Lattanzio said parents spend as much time as they possibly can by their babies’ bedsides.

“Some parents don’t even like to go one floor up to the cafeteria. They want to be with the baby at all times. That’s why we are so pleased to have a place just for them – and is only steps away from the nursery,” she added.

The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes web site at www.marchofdimes.com or its Spanish language Web site at www.nacersano.org. 

UConn Health includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, the UConn Medical Group, University Dentists, and John Dempsey Hospital. Home to Bioscience Connecticut, UConn Health pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. More information about UConn Health is available at www.uchc.edu.

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