Counting the Kicks with the Colts

Sarah has been with us since Saturday, here on a work trip but staying with us instead of a motel to get some family time in.

Today she heads down to Indianapolis to the Indianapolis Colts practice facility where, sponsored by  Colts Wide Receiver Ryan Kelly, his wife Emma, and the Colts team itself, her organization, Healthy Birth Day, is holding an event for underserved pregnant mothers. 

Count the Kicks is part of Healthy Birth Day's stillbirth prevention program, and because Ryan and Emma's first daughter was stillborn, they are interested in educating other families about how counting a baby's kicks during the third trimester can help indicate possible problems with the pregnancy.

Sarah is passionate about maternal health care. Just this past September, President Biden signed a bill giving states more flexibility to use federal funding grants to help prevent stillbirth. Sarah worked on getting that bill passed.

She was working on the Colts' event while she was here and some of that included checking out billboards she'd contracted to advertise the event.

So, Sunday afternoon Lisa, Curt, and Vanessa drove her around town to help her find the three she'd had put up in the Lafayette area. 

Craig and I stayed home with Ian, Mila, and Lukie, playing Rudolph Bingo, watching Home Alone together, and grilling out burgers and hotdogs for a family dinner.

Sarah was only here for a short time, but Tammo absolutely fell in love with her.

He followed her like he was glued to her side, and even slept in her room with her, ignoring our calls to join us when we went to bed!

She left early this morning to head down to the Colts facility where she has several meetings and set-up to supervise before the event at 6:00 this evening. 

They had planned for 200 women to come, but far more than that signed up, so there is a bit of a scramble - making sure they have enough food for the dinner, swag bags for each expectant mom, and more. 

I can't wait to hear how it goes, but she has people to drive to the airport tonight and will just stay in a hotel there and drive home tomorrow morning. 

Best of luck today, Sarah!

Sarah and a Win for Maternal Health Care

 Second Post of the Day

I have another nickname for Hawkeye Sarah - Hero Daughter. Why? Because she is passionate about doing things that make a difference in the lives of others. Her focus has been maternal health care for over two decades now. And what a difference she just made recently - all the way to the White House.

Sarah began her career as a nurse, then shortly into that career, was t-boned at an intersection and injured her back badly enough that she was unable to do the standing needed as a hospital or surgical nurse.

Looking for new options in the medical field, Sarah then became certified as a doula and a breast feeding consultant. She went back to school, got her degree in Education, and became a high school health and social studies teacher. (She taught more than one pregnant teen who, aware that their teacher was also a nurse and doula, asked Sarah to be with her while she gave birth.) 

She and Todd moved to Aurora, Colorado where she was hired as the director of Health Education grades K-12 for the Aurora Public Schools. She wrote curriculum, she wrote grants, she mentored teachers.

Six years later and with a Masters degree in Public Health, Todd and Sarah moved back to Iowa where she was hired as the State Expansion Director for Count the Kicks, the educational arm of Healthy Birth Day, Inc. that focuses on the prevention of stillbirth. The organization began in Iowa and is now found in all fifty states.

The organization has focused on bringing better maternal care to all women, especially those populations that are traditionally underserved. That focus has received a lot of bipartisan political support in each state of the country. 

Through that bipartisan support, a bill was recently introduced in Congress, made it through both the House and the Senate, and was signed into law by President Biden.

States now have the flexibility to use federal grant funding to help prevent stillbirth.

This mama so very proud of her Hero Daughter and the difference she has made in the lives of others. 

And that's why I call her "Hero Daughter."