NoVa Nonproft Lends Helping Hand to Families of Premature Babies

In 2002, MaryBeth Hazelgrove's daughter came into the world after just 26 weeks of pregnancy. 

It was a difficult experience for Hazelgrove, who would spend long periods of time with her daughter in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), holding her "kangaroo care" style, leaning back with the baby on her chest, skin to skin, a method that has proven beneficial for premature babies. 

Ten years later, Hazelgrove has taken what she's learned from that experience and is working as executive director of Preemies Today, a nonprofit that helps families who have a child born prematurely.  

"We do it on a pretty limited budget, and it’s not easy for anyone who’s a nonprofit," so it felt great to find out they had won the 2011 Nonprofit of the Year Award, Hazelgrove said.  

Another NICU parent, Kathy Paz, founded Preemies Today about a decade ago. Hazelgrove met Paz and in 2004 she started leading projects and programs for Preemies Today. In addition to supporting families via in-person groups and over the internet, the group works to educate people on prematurity.

“A lot of times people feel like preemies are just little babies that grow big, and there’s a lot more involved,” said Hazelgrove, a resident of Centreville for ten years. 

The group has provided a number of kangaroo care chairs for NICU units, to make that style of holding the infant just a little easier for stressed-out parents, and delivered preemie care packages to ten hospitals in the metropolitan area. They also have a program to bring meals over to allow tired parents to take a break from cooking, in addition to playgroups that encourage proper development and are designed for the special needs of premature children. 

A lot of help comes from parents of premature babies, but Preemies Today also has health care professionals involved, people who were born prematurely themselves, and others within the community. 

In the future, Hazelgrove would like to see the group expand to provide in-person groups in other areas.

“We get so many letters from people saying ‘I wish that I had this in my community,'" she said. 

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