“It’s important to reach families in a variety of ways. Every Kick Counts helps us do that by raising awareness about Count the Kicks through athletics in communities across the country,” said Dr. Diana Kaufman, Medical Director, Women’s Health Service Line, UnityPoint Health.

How it Works

Athletes who sign up collect donations for Count the Kicks by receiving pledges for every score, punt, kick or success they have in their game. Every time they succeed, they raise money and potentially save lives. All proceeds directly benefit our mission to prevent stillbirth and reduce racial disparities that persist in birth outcomes.

Athletes across the country (from high school to professional sports) have already committed to turning their performance into monetary support for Count the Kicks. Committed athletes include Matt Haack of the Buffalo Bills and Tory Taylor of the University of Iowa football team.

Impact of Count the Kicks

Baby Jovie (pictured above) is living proof that Count the Kicks WORKS. She was saved at UnityPoint last fall — during football season — when her mom noticed a change in her movements.

“I will be forever grateful to Count the Kicks for saving my baby girl’s life. I knew something was off, and I’m so glad we went to the hospital that night. Thank you to all the doctors and nurses who brought her safely into this world and who have cared for her along the way,” said Jess H., Jovie’s mom.

Get Involved

We are thrilled to kick off this new campaign. We are also grateful to UnityPoint Health and the athletes across the country who have joined together to support our mission. Together we are raising awareness about how every kick counts, both on the field and during pregnancy. We are also working together to improve birth outcomes nationwide! 

Athletes looking to sign up, gather pledges, and get involved can visit the Every Kick Counts website to get started. You can also visit the website to pledge your support to an athlete and learn more about the campaign. 

Follow Every Kick Counts

We invite you to follow Every Kick Counts on social media using the links below. Be sure to use the hashtag #EveryKickCounts

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• YouTube

The post UnityPoint Health partners with Every Kick Counts and student athletes to reduce stillbirths appeared first on Count the Kicks.

About Lydie’s Loop

Last year’s Lydie’s Loop raised more than $19,000 to benefit Count the Kicks. Because of funding from Lydie’s Loop, we were able to add a strength feature on the Count the Kicks app. App users are now able to monitor the strength of their babies’ movements. This is another important vital sign that should be monitored during the third trimester.

Funds from last year’s event also went directly to training Ohio nurses and doctors in how to have the kick counting conversation with expectant parents. More trained providers = better birth outcomes.

Honoring Lydie

Registration is now open for the sixth annual Lydie’s Loop, which is planned for Sept. 18. We asked Heather to share more about this event and how you can get involved in sharing the cause.

“Lydie’s Loop is an event that I plan in honor of my second child, Lydia, who was suddenly stillborn due to an umbilical cord accident when I was 34 weeks pregnant. She was perfect, but born without a heartbeat.

Lydie would be 6 1/2, just 20 months younger than her big bro and 11 months older than her little sis. Recently a neighbor kid asked me how it was possible that I could love someone I do not know. I told him surely his parents loved him not only the second they laid eyes on him, but also when he was in his mom’s tummy. It’s the same for me with Lydie. I loved her while I grew her for 34 weeks and I fell even more in love with her that first moment I laid eyes on her. 

It’s a love that only grows, even though she doesn’t.

It’s difficult to know what to do with all that love, when I can’t coach her soccer team or give her a hug as she gets on the school bus. Instead, I plant flowers in her garden and we light a candle and tell her we love her out loud. I volunteer my time for Count the Kicks to prevent what happened to Lydie from happening to other babies. 

The most important thing I do with all this love with nowhere to go is plan Lydie’s Loop. It’s a 1 mile walk, 5K run, kids’ dash, silent auction, raffle, and all around good time where hundreds of people come together to celebrate the babies we never got to know. Creating this space, this happy morning, where we are CELEBRATING our love for our dead babies, is one of my proudest accomplishments. In five years, we’ve raised $100,000 for stillbirth prevention.” -Heather Johnston Welliver, Lydie’s mom; Count the Kicks Ohio Ambassador

Register for Lydie’s Loop

The Sixth Annual Lydie’s Loop: Steps Against Stillbirth will be held Sept. 18 in Gahanna, Ohio. Participants can register to participate either in-person or virtually. Proceeds from this year’s event will again benefit Count the Kicks mission to make kick counting a common practice in the third trimester of pregnancy. 

The deadline to have a name included on this year’s shirt is Aug. 31. Find more details and register here: www.lydiesloop.org

The post Lydie’s Loop Helps Share the Cause of Kick Counting appeared first on Count the Kicks.

In Iowa where we are based, the racial disparities for stillbirth are alarming: an African-American mom is almost twice as likely to have a baby born still than a Caucasian mom. An Hispanic mom is one-and-a-half times more likely to lose her baby. The racial disparities are the same across the U.S.

Researchers point to a variety of reasons for the disparities: genetics, access to adequate healthcare, racism and toxic stress. In the coming year, we need to reach those moms who are most at risk of losing a baby and we need your help. As 2017 comes to a close, we thank you for your belief in our mission and ask for an investment in our work to reach at-risk moms in 2018. Your gift will allow us to educate at-risk moms on the importance of kick counting. Empower them. And give them a tool that could save their baby — the free Count the Kicks app.

Your gift will allow us to train more doctors, nurses, visiting nurses, midwives, office staff and childbirth educators on the importance of tracking fetal movement in the third trimester, and to conduct more outreach to at-risk moms on social media, in churches, community centers and baby fairs.

A baby is born still every 22 minutes in the U.S. One in every 167 pregnancies ends in a stillbirth. We have to do better.

Thank you for considering a gift that will help us reach the women (and babies) who need us the most. We can’t do this important work without you. We wish you and yours a very Happy New Year.

Warmly,

The Count the Kicks Team

The post Saving Babies this New Year and Every Year appeared first on Count the Kicks.

He was an active baby that was always on the move, until one day Katie noticed that within the normal hour it took to usually get 10 kicks, she only got four.

“I immediately told my husband that there was something wrong and I needed to go in and get checked,” Katie wrote.

Just a six kick difference sounded the alarm.

Her doctor ordered an ultrasound.  Nurses found a baby in distress. Then came an emergency C-section.

When baby Liam entered the world, the cord was wrapped around his neck and doctors discovered a severe infection.

“We were so close to losing our baby boy,” Katie told us.

Liam spent 10 days in the NICU before he could go home.  But he went home. Safe in the arms of his family.

“The doctor told us that if I hadn’t been counting kicks and hadn’t been made aware of the situation, our baby probably wouldn’t be with us today. She said that she could almost guarantee that he would have been stillborn if we would have waited,” she wrote.

The grateful Iowa mom knew not to wait.

Weeks before, her doctor had handed her a colorful brochure with a Dr. Seuss-looking belly and a very valuable piece of advice: download the app, too.

Informed doctors. Diligent mama. Miracle baby.

Beautiful, right?

There’s more.

How did that colorful brochure with the Dr. Seuss belly end up in Katie’s doctor’s office?

It landed there because Telligen Community Initiative of West Des Moines, Iowa chose to make a difference.

They chose to invest in Count the Kicks.

Here’s why.

Since the public awareness campaign (based on this research from Norway) launched in Iowa in 2009,  Iowa went from 33rd to 3rd lowest in U.S. stillbirth rankings.

The state’s stillbirth rate dropped 26 percent. Incredible, right?

Now picture this.

If the entire country’s stillbirth rate could also drop by 26 percent, we could save 6,000 babies every year.

SIX THOUSAND BABIES.

You see, a stillbirth happens every 22 minutes in the US.

A family is ten times more likely to lose a baby to stillbirth than to SIDS.

Since early 2015, Telligen Community Initiative has made it free for every Iowa hospital, doctor’s office and clinic to have Count the Kicks brochures and posters.

An investment today. A baby saved tomorrow.

“I will forever be grateful to this organization and the app for making mothers aware of counting the kicks and the movements of their unborn children. My baby boy is truly a Count the Kicks success story,” Katie wrote.

Liam turns one in a couple weeks. And one day he will be a Grandpa.

An investment today. A family tree forever altered.

It’s just that easy.

Will you join our movement?

Will you help us get more brochures in mamas’ hands?

Will you help us put posters in hospitals and clinics across the country?

Will you tell expecting parents about Count the Kicks?

Will you make sure they download the app, now available in Spanish and for twins?

There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Just ask Katie.

The post You Can Save a Baby, Too appeared first on Count the Kicks.