Dollar-Free Donations

Many people understand the plight that uninsured pregnant women face, before and after delivery.  Some of those people want to help; and some pregnant women are lucky enough to receive charitable donations that help them survive during economically tumultuous times.

Non-profit organizations like Maternity Health award scholarships for maternity care expenses, funded by monetary donations.  Unfortunately, not everyone can donate money – especially during a recession.

But just because you don’t have the extra cash doesn’t mean you can’t donate meaningfully, or that your gifts won’t be graciously accepted.  Dollar-free donations for uninsured pregnant women come in many forms and from many different sponsors:  businesses, individuals, families, foundations and others can always find items to donate to pregnant women.  And women who recently received charity during their own pregnancies are encouraged to pay it forward by passing along unused baby supplies to newly-pregnant women.

Take a quick look through your pantry, attic or nursery to see if you can donate:

• Maternity clothes
• Blankets
• Pillows
• Beds/Cribs/Bassinets
• Diapers
• Baby shampoo/soap
• Changing table
• Baby swing
• High chairs
• Car seats
• Books on raising babies/children
• Gift certificates
• Food
• Toys

Your donated items can save pregnant women a lot of money and help ease their struggles.  Several maternity charity organizations exist that can pass your donations along to uninsured pregnant women, or you can give personalized donations to families in your area.  You can often find a local outpost – try contacting your Chamber of Commerce for ideas – or you can donate your items to a food pantry to resell in order to pay for food for needy families.  Many of these organizations allow your donations to be earmarked for pregnant women and women with young children, so you can make sure your donations are going to the people you intend.

Dollar-free donations are easy, can help you clear clutter and make you feel good about helping those less fortunate.  Most importantly, your donations can reduce financial stresses and bring satisfaction, security and joy to pregnant women and their children.  Donate dollar-free today!

MEMORIAL DAY

Hope is Enough…REALLY!!!!

I woke up at 5am this morning after a rather rough day yesterday. As I was reflecting on what is really going on in this world and in my own life and those around me I thought I need some GOOD news. I want to read about, see, experience people going out of their way to do RIGHT and GOOD. I want to see people NOT think of themselves but instead ask how can I take personal responsibility and make someone else’s life better.

I was frustrated at how much “digging” around I had to do to find “Good”. I know it is out there and all around us just nobody seems to “Promote” it. (Including me) In the coming weeks I am going to change that and I am asking you to join me. Stay tuned for details. In the meantime please take a few minutes and read about what I am talking about.

Now, go out and make a difference for someone else today. I BELIEVE in YOU!!!

By Rick Reilly
ESPN The Magazine

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through. Did you hear that? The other team’s fans? They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions. It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on-by name.”I never in my life thought I’d hear people cheering for us to hit their kids,” recalls Gainesville ’s QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. “I wouldn’t expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!”And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he’d just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach. But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five-handcuffs ready in their back pockets-and marched them to the team bus. That’s because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas . Every game it plays is on the road. This all started when Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery-many of whose families had disowned them-wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets. So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans-for one night only-cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send:” Hogan wrote. “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan’s office and asked, “Coach, why are we doing this?”And Hogan said, “Imagine if you didn’t have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!”I thought maybe they were confused,” said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). “They started yelling ‘DEE-fense!’ when their team had the ball. I said, ‘What? Why they cheerin’ for us?’”It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. “We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games,” says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. “You can see it in their eyes. They’re lookin’ at us like we’re criminals. But these people, they were yellin’ for us! By our names!”Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game’s last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string corner back at defensive end. Still. After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that’s when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. “We had no idea what the kid was going to say,” remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: “Lord, I don’t know how this happened, so I don’t know how to say thank You, but I never would’ve known there was so many people in the world that cared about us.”And it was a good thing everybody’s heads were bowed because they might’ve seen Hogan wiping away tears. As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home-a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player. The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, “You’ll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You’ll never, ever know.”And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they’d never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it’s nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.
HOPE.

Racism Causing Premature Births

The documentary UNNATURAL CAUSES: In Inequality Making Us Sick? poses an interesting question: is racism in the United States causing African American women to give birth to premature babies? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdFzwPEfRhs

Regardless of social status, economic situation or education, the documentary reports that the premature birth rate for African American babies is nearly double that of white babies. A study conducted by leading researchers found no correlation to genetics; leaving racism as a potential reason for delivering early.

Researchers believe that the lifetime stresses and anxieties associated with unequal treatment are at the root of the problem. Premature birth often comes with life-threatening, sometimes fatal, complications – especially for women who can’t gain access to proper prenatal care. For African Americans, the risk is even greater.

The war against unfair treatment for pregnant women is multi-front. On one front, we’re battling the medical community, which denies treatment and inflates medical bills; on another, we’re fighting insurance companies who refuse to cover maternity-related procedures; and we’re fighting racism, too, a malicious socioeconomic disease that the U.S. has not been able to shake despite strides for equality.

Each baby born is a miracle in and of itself; the miracle of life and the only thing that can perpetuate humanity. Giving birth, and thus life, is even more amazing when you realize that so many forces are aligned against it. The fact that the majority of pregnancies end with a normal delivery and healthy babies is astonishing; but at the same time the fact that so many women and newborns suffer because they can’t get proper prenatal care and have to face other stresses during pregnancy is appalling.

It is illegal to discriminate against a pregnant mother because of her race. Maternity Health and Maternity Advantage have resources to help ensure pregnant women are not being victimized by society; and more women who are in financial and other socioeconomic need should contact these organizations to prevent unfair treatment and to get the best care possible for themselves and their babies.

When war has been waged against you, you have to fight back. That’s what we’re doing, and we won’t stop until we secure the rights of mothers to give birth to healthy babies – and still have the means to support them once they return home.

Want to help in the cause? You can donate to Maternity Health, a nonprofit organization that fights for the rights of mothers, here: http://www.maternityhealth.org/help.htm.

This is News?

The recent $50 million settlement by Oxford Insurance and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, to halt accusations by the New York attorney general’s office that the health insurance providers overcharged millions of Americans hundreds of millions of dollars got a lot of media coverage (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28628880/). But it isn’t news – this is what we’ve been talking about for years!

Undoubtedly, New York isn’t the only state in which this occurred, nor is Oxford/UnitedHealth the only company that should be investigated. The research firm that provided the reimbursement rate figures, Ingenix (also owned by UnitedHealth), serves several other insurers. The article says that other companies will be investigated – but how many? How many other research firms fix the numbers? How many other insurance companies are overcharging?

And what happens to the millions of Americans who are overcharged? Women with newborns, those struggling with diabetes or fighting cancer – how do they also contend with bills totaling tens of thousands of dollars? How many people have died because they could no longer afford treatment after being overcharged?

The health insurance conglomerate denies the allegations, of course, but was willing to pay $50 million to make them go away. That’s a lot of money to pay if you’re innocent.

Some good will come out of the settlement, though. The $50 million is to be used for a nonprofit organization that will determine patient reimbursement rates, and the story did grab the attention of the media (about time!).

Still, it doesn’t seem as though justice was served. If you swindle people out of money, you should not be allowed to use that money to buy your way out of trouble. And now, the company is left with a gaping $50 million void in the budget – whose dollars do you think are going to fill that void?

The Five Most Important Things You Can Do Before Becoming Pregnant are:

1. Take 400 micrograms (400 mcg or 0.4 mg) of folic acid every day for at least 3 months before getting pregnant to lower your risk of some birth defects of the brain and spine. You can get folic acid from some foods. But it’s hard to get all the folic acid you need from foods alone. Taking a vitamin with folic acid is the best and easiest way to be sure you’re getting enough.

2. Stop smoking and drinking alcohol. Ask your doctor for help.

3. If you have a medical condition, be sure it is under control. Some conditions include asthma, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, obesity, thyroid disease, or epilepsy. Be sure your vaccinations are up to date.

4. Talk to your doctor about any over-the-counter and prescription medicines you are using. These include dietary or herbal supplements. Some medicines are not safe during pregnancy. At the same time, stopping medicines you need also can be harmful.

5. Avoid contact with toxic substances or materials at work and at home that could be harmful. Stay away from chemicals and cat or rodent feces.