This means that at least 6,251 families were affected by prematurity. 

Over the last ten years, 16% of premature babies born in Wisconsin were considered very premature.

(less than 32 weeks gestation) 

These babies and families will almost always have a long NICU stay.

This is how YOu and PPOW can help...

NICU FAMILY SUPPORT - care packages.

We have been there.  In the NICU.  It is a pretty scary transition.  Preemie Power of Wisconsin has created a care package for families that find themselves in the NICU due to the premature birth of a baby.  These care packages include items for baby and family - including helpful resources for parents from how to cope as NICU parents and how to help siblings cope to who to be in contact with at the hospital and outside of the hospital regarding baby's care.  PPOW will try to stock Wisconsin NICUs with care packages (beginning in late 2016).  If your NICU does not have PPOW care packages, you can request a care package for your family or the family of a preemie you know to be sent directly to the family in a NICU located in Wisconsin. 

The contents of the care packages may vary depending on what we have in stock at any given time but all care packages will contain items and resources that we, as former NICU families would have found useful.

NICU grants and donations

Preemie Power of Wisconsin wants to help Wisconsin NICUs enhance the NICU experience for families affected by prematurity.  PPOW can provide grants to Wisconsin NICUs needing funds to accomplish this goal.  We continue to develop our grant and NICU donation process and will provide a formalized request method in the near future.  Please check back for updates.

NICU family online resources

Preemie Power of Wisconsin care packages will contain some physical resources to help NICU families affected by prematurity navigate their new surroundings.  But there are also a lot of online resources.  Anybody who has done an online search for ANYTHING knows that there are often HUNDREDS of search results and deciding which to use is not a simple process.  As NICU families of premature babies, we will provide some of the online resources that we found especially helpful and relevant.