Nurse Practitioner Virginia Beck and entrepreneur Renee Uliana are a perfect match. Both are advocates for causes close to heart — healthy pregnancy and skin cancer prevention, respectively — and now they’ve managed to work together for double the exposure.
Nurse Practitioner Virginia Beck and entrepreneur Renee Uliana are a perfect match.
Both are advocates for causes close to heart — healthy pregnancy and skin cancer prevention, respectively — and now they’ve managed to work together for double the exposure.
Beck runs the Ten Times Healthier Babies Project, which focuses on getting mothers-to-be into care early, by 10 weeks of pregnancy, and having them keep at least 10 pre-natal appointments and attend child-birth classes.
“Premature birth is a terrible problem nationally,” Beck said. “Hawai‘i ranks sixth in the country, with one out of eight babies in Hawai‘i born prematurely.”
Uliana, who battled skin cancer, ran her own infant clothing business, creating and selling infant sun hats to prevent sun damage.
“I have red hair and fair skin,” Uliana said. “Knowing I should be more careful, I wasn’t. I want people to know that you do have to be careful.”
She thought that if moms covered their infants’ heads, the children would be comfortable wearing hats and would learn at an early age the need for protection.
When Beck approached her about the Ten Times Healthier Babies Project, Uliana “loved” the idea.
“Virginia has been so inspirational and encouraging for so many people,” Uliana said. “I was right on the band wagon.”
Uliana wanted to donate hats, but Beck needed 100. The hats were to be used as one of a number of incentives for each appointment kept by mothers-to-be in the Ten Times program.
With each class attended, mothers receive a gift for the baby.
While the program got initial financial backing from a March of Dimes grant in 2004, Beck said a donation from Pioneer Seeds enabled her to pay Uliana for the infant sun hats.
In order to continue the project, which includes free childbirth classes, Beck seeks help from the community and organizations such as the Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital Charitable Foundation and auxiliary.
“When community people do such wonderful things to keep this kind of work moving forward, you just want to acknowledge them,” Beck said.
The project has been replicated on Moloka‘i and Lana‘i.
“I’m so proud and so glad to be a part of the project,” Uliana said. “It’s not just she and I; it goes further.”
The cost of premature babies affects everyone, Beck said, which is why she encourages proactive education for mothers.
For more information about the free childbirth classes, call Beck at 335-0579.
Uliana’s Keiki Kovers shop is located at 4545 Kona Road in Hanapepe.
• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com.
