National Day of Birth

Dear Readers!

 Just a short note to mark a special day.

Daily, an average of 500 babies are born in The Netherlands. For the majority of couples, giving birth and welcoming their baby is one of the happiest moments of their life. Unfortunately, for about 48 couples a day, this happiness is overshadowed by sorrow. Their babies are born with complications, ranging from premature birth, low birth weight/growth restriction, and congenital abnormalities to a combination of different problems.

Today, it is the National Day of Birth in The Netherlands. A day on which we celebrate the joy of welcoming new life without turning a blind eye to the challenges we are still facing in ensuring a healthy start for every single baby. 

This day is an initiative of the dutch Born Healthy Foundation, which advocates a healthy birth and tries to generate funding for establishing scientific research that can contribute to finding causes, ways of prevention and cures for common birth complications like pre-eclampsia, congenital abnormalities, and growth restriction. The research also focusses on the pregnant woman herself and how she can optimize the outcome of her pregnancy.

As a midwife, I wholeheartedly support this cause, and wish everyone – pregnant or not – a happy and healthy Day of Birth!

Those of you who feel like supporting the drive towards making pregnancy and birth even healthier, can have a look here.