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For more than six decades, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation has been a dynamic and highly effective volunteer organization dedicated to improving the health of our nation's children.
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes to address a national health crisis -- the terrifying disease called polio -- that was crippling and killing our nation's young. The organization's name originated when entertainer Eddie Cantor, on his weekly radio show, urged his listeners to send donations in a "march of dimes to the White House." Through this and other mass public appeals, funds were raised to provide care for polio victims, training for doctors and nurses, and equipment for hospitals and temporary emergency facilities. The primary focus, however, was on preventing the disease. The March of Dimes invested in basic research to determine the nature of the virus that caused polio and then planned a strategy to defeat it. Although polio had plagued the world for hundreds of years, a vaccine that prevented the disease was developed in less than two decades through March of Dimes leadership.
In 1958, with polio on the decline in the United States, the March of Dimes turned its attention to an even greater child health problem. In the course of the polio research, it had become clear that a vast array of serious and unexplained physical and mental disorders, present at birth,were quietly plaguing the nation. The March of Dimes, concerned that little was being done to understand or prevent these disorders, named them "birth defects" and worked to build public awareness and support for this important cause.
The March of Dimes continues to develop strategies to prevent birth defects and to promote a healthy start in life for America's babies by:
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Supporting scientists at leading institutions to find the causes of birth defects;
- Promoting new and improved methods to prevent and treat birth defects, and making information and services available to health care professionals;
- Fostering prenatal care and other preventive health services to enable women to protect the health of their babies before they are born;
- Acting as advocates for mothers and babies at all levels of government;
- Mounting national public education campaigns to provide new and important information about healthy childbearing to women and men across the country;
- Informing and helping coordinate the efforts of other organizations and public agencies that have the ability and financial resources to initiate far-reaching health care and educational programs.
The March of Dimes is an organization of volunteers and staff committed to ensuring a healthy future for our nation by improving the health of our children.
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