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Brave Little Ones: World Prematurity Day Marked in Dubrovnik

World Prematurity Day is observed on 17 November each year to raise awareness of preterm birth and the concerns of preterm babies and their families worldwide and thus the lovely morning dedicated to little warriors was marked in Dubrovnik too!

Approximately 15 million babies are born preterm each year, accounting for about one in 10 of all babies born worldwide, stats say. In Croatia, each year 2600 premature babies are born. Urgent action is always requested to address preterm birth given that the first country-level estimates show that globally 15 million babies are born too soon and rates are increasing in most countries with reliable time trend data.

The idea, followed by a lovely Saturday morning on Stradun, belongs to a popular group of ‘Moms from Dubrovnik’, of which some are proud mothers of ‘thumbelinas’ and ‘thumbies’, as the premature born children are called in Croatia. The action itself is called ‘Thumbs Up!’, and this morning moms were collecting donations for the medical apparatus necessary for the little ones.