As they stood on the stage, all smiles and cheers, you wouldn’t know that just a year ago they were fighting to save their daughter’s life.
Cecelia and Michael Ribuffo won a fundraising prize at the seventh annual Gators March for Babies on Sunday. More than 1,000 people gathered on Turlington Plaza to walk and raise money for the March of Dimes, an organization committed to preventing birth defects and premature birth.
For Cecelia Ribuffo, 25, the organization was a solace to her after a long battle for her premature daughter.
“You never think this is going to happen to you,” she said. “I did everything by the book and still ended up with a premature baby.”
According to March of Dimes statistics, one out of eight babies is born preterm. Gators March for Babies was created so college students, teachers and alumni could get involved with a growing epidemic.
The event was a 5k walk/run through the UF campus with “spirit stations” along the way with giveaways and free cupcakes, popcorn and brownies. Participants who made it to the end walked under an arch of purple and white balloons, greeted by the UF band, Dazzlers and the UF gymnastics team.
Betsy Trent, executive director of March of Dimes in North Central Florida, said this year brought in about $65,000 to fund various programs and grants, like smoking cessation for mothers and support for families with prematurity issues.
She said brain development is crucial in the last few weeks of pregnancy, and mothers should try to go full term if possible. A recent study funded by the March of Dimes found that some mothers and doctors choose to induce labor and have Caesarean sections out of convenience and not of necessity.
Cecelia Ribuffo knows love and loss all too well. She always wanted a baby girl. When she was little, she would cradle her favorite doll and imagine what it would be like to hold her own child in her arms.
In college, she got pregnant and thought she finally had everything she wanted. It wasn’t so. Early pregnancy was marred by constant cramping. And she wasn’t gaining weight. She knew something was wrong. At first, the doctors said she was “anxious.”
Ribuffo, in constant pain, felt like her baby was having seizures inside of her. When they cut Annabelle out she weighed only 2 pounds.
“I felt so sorry for her. You expect your little Gerber baby,” she said. “Instead you have a child that’s holding on for dear life.”
The situation wasn’t ideal, but the Ribuffos were a family. However, before the shutter clicked for a family photo by the incubator, the doctor walked in with bad news.
Annabelle’s brain was bleeding.
Doctors tried an experimental procedure that involved burning a hole into her brain. It didn’t work. They tried a brain shunt to decrease swelling. Through the ordeal, Ribuffo tried to put on a brave face, but she was tortured.
Finally, Annabelle stabilized and the Ribuffos could breathe. They registered at Babies”R”Us and took a trip to Walt Disney World. When they got back, they were on a high, only to be greeted by bad news. Annabelle was fussy and didn’t want to be held. Her head started growing again. She had hydrocephalus, a buildup of spinal fluid in the brain. It can be deadly, more so for infants.
An MRI showed that there was barely any functioning brain left.
It was all black with a thin layer of red. She was brain dead.
Annabelle would never know who she was, she’d never know her parents, she’d never know Santa Claus. After all the fighting and fear, all the surgeries and pain, all the hope you could squeeze out of a human being, it was over.
Even though she suffered an unspeakable loss, Ribuffo wants others to know this could happen to them. And even though she probably can’t carry another baby, her sister-in-law offered to be a surrogate mother.
They started the process last week.
