KeepEmCookin.com - Prevent Preterm Birth

Resources

SUPPORT DURING PREGNANCY

Keep ’Em Cookin’ Forum
Support is just one click away at the Keep ’Em Cookin’ Forum! Talk with other women experiencing high-risk pregnancies and women on bed rest.

A Second Me
A Second Me is a company in Virginia dedicated to helping you when you need it most. They do it all: running errands, washing dishes, doing the laundry, grocery shopping and light food prep, helping to get the nursery ready, and taking you to appointments. “The list is really endless,” says founder Karen Prante. “Our service providers are responsible, polite, respectful and ready to help.”  Call 703.830.3996 to set up a free consultation.

BabyProFinder
A comprehensive directory makes it easy for prospective parents to find all the Baby Pros they need on one site.  Professionals can easily be found by location, specialty, and insurances accepted. Now parents and pros can connect in a new way.

Bedrest Butler
Bed rest graduate Kelly Gould has hand-selected a range of products to make pregnancy bed rest more comfortable and makes them available for sale in a single place. You can even make a wish list.

Bedrest Concierge
Stephanie Johnson is a bed rest graduate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area offering maternity services, baby planning and support to moms on bed rest before and after delivery (errands, registry, baby showers, announcements, baby-proofing and more). Call 972-302-2827 or connect with her through the link to her website above.

Better BedRest
Better BedRest is an advocacy, public awareness and volunteer-driven non-profit whose purpose is to provide support, resources and information to pregnant women who are prescribed bed rest by their physicians or midwives. Better BedRest offers a phone helpline for women on pregnancy bed rest: 410-740-7662.

Calming Bed Rest Meditations
Juliet Eccleston is a psychotherapist specializing in enabling calm and gentle births. She has created a visualization exercise just for moms-to-be on bed rest, and just for KeepEmCookin.com. You can download the meditation exercise by clicking the link above. Learn more about having a peaceful pregnancy and relaxed labor at http://birthdownload.com.

March of Dimes
The March of Dimes mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. They carry out this mission through research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies' lives. March of Dimes researchers, volunteers, educators, outreach workers and advocates work together to give all babies a fighting chance against the threats to their health: prematurity, birth defects, and low birthweight.

Mamas on Bedrest & Beyond
Mamas on Bedrest & Beyond provides support, resources and information to women on pregnancy bed rest, including on-on-one coaching and small-group coaching. Founder Darlene Turner-Lee helps mamas navigate the various obstacles--physical, emotional and financial--providing them with useful tools and staunch support, to smoothly transition to motherhood.

MothersWay
MothersWay is a maternal resource center that provides in-home support to women experiencing high-risk pregnancies in Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg and Wesley Chapel, Florida. They also provide services by Skype and e-mail. Founder Susanne Jones has 20 years of experience as a counselor working with women, babies and teens, and is herself a bedrest graduate, making her uniquely qualified to work with women experiencing high-risk or challenging pregnancies.

Sidelines National Support Network
Sidelines is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization providing international support for women and their families experiencing complicated pregnancies and premature births. Sidelines is committed to providing support, education, and advocacy to women with high-risk pregnancies. Sidelines offers personal e-mail support or phone support. Visit the Sidelines website or call 1.888.447.4754.

Stork Support
Stork Support’s Bed Rest Program provides support by phone, through online video conferencing, and with in-person home visits (in the Philadelphia area).  Each session provides emotional support, short-term counseling, and connections to other resources. As licensed social workers, Liz Bland and Rebecca Colonna provide a trained listening ear and will help women brainstorm solutions regarding household responsibilities, childcare, financial concerns, and more.

Sweet Pea Baby Planners
Sweet Pea Baby Planners provides bed rest moms with nursery preparation, personal shopping, and complete in-home support before and after baby arrives. Click here to locate a personal baby planner in Charlotte, NC; Denver, CO; Fort Collins, CO; Dallas; Los Angeles; New York City; or Palm Beach, FL.

POST-PREGNANCY SUPPORT

Hand to Hold
Hand to Hold provides ongoing support, education and resources to parents, and serves to fill the service gap that currently exists for families who have had a child in the NICU or who experienced a loss. By providing a holistic approach to preemie care in partnership with leaders in the field of prematurity and child health and development, Hand to Hold has the power to improve the lives of parents of preemies, babies born with special health care needs and those that experience a loss due to these challenges. All support services are provided at no charge.

Graham's Foundation
Graham’s Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 by Jennifer and Nick Hall in memory of their son, Graham. Its mission is to offer both practical and emotional support to parents of micro-preemie babies. The foundation supports the parents by sending care packages to them during their journey in the NICU and the foundation’s website provides a place for parents to share their stories and find support. To find out more and request a care package, visit www.grahamsfoundation.org.

Pregnancy After Preemie
Melissa delivered her daughter at 24 weeks. While pregnant with her son, Melissa created Pregnancy After Preemie to document and share her fight against preterm birth. She did everything possible to stay pregnant: transabdominal cerclage, oral Prometrium, Alpha-Hydroxy Progesterone Injections, Procardia, Terbutaline, pelvic rest, no exercise, and a lot of monitoring! Now she runs The Preemie Life, which provides parents with support and resources for life after the NICU. 

Preemie Prints
Preemie Prints supports NICU families. They encourage families to photograph their preemies each and every day, capturing the journey they are facing together as a new family. Families are encouraged to start a preemie file, sending pictures and updates along the way. At one point during the NICU stay or once a family is home, experienced volunteers will provide a complimentary professional photography session. All edited images will be provided back to the family on a disk for printing. Once the NICU journey is over, Preemie Prints will compile the photos to create a beautiful DVD Storybook Slideshow. You will never forget the courage you gained and obstacles you overcame together as a family.

PreemieWorld
PreemieWorld helps bridge the gap between parents and professionals in the NICU, at home and beyond. The organization provides products and resources for parents and professionals, including the book The Preemie Parent's Survival Guide to the NICU.

Postpartum Progress
Postpartum Progress is a blog about postpartum depression and related illnesses intended to provide hope and comfort to the women who suffer, as well as the people who care for them family, friends, health care providers. It features news and research, a list of support groups around the country, stories from moms and fellow sufferers and links to major support organizations and treatment programs.

MORE INFORMATION

Irritable Uterus
Doctors have varying opinions on what a woman with an irritable uterus should or should not do to treat the condition. No one knows for sure what causes it and very few studies have been done on how much an irritable uterus is connected to preterm labor and birth. The main purpose of the website Irritable Uterus is to collect and disseminate information to help women dealing with and/or doctors treating and perhaps assisting in preventing irritable uterus.

Preterm Labor and Birth
Information from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

STATISTICS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Division of Reproductive Health
Promotes optimal reproductive and infant health. CDC scientists and their partners are collaborating with states, university researchers and partners in health care to understand why preterm births occur, and what can be done to prevent prematurity.

March of Dimes: PeriStats
National, state, and local perinatal statistics.