Front Royal family serving as Virginia's March of Dimes ambassadors

By Jessica Wiant - jwiant@nvdaily.com

If he'd been born one week sooner, Christian Downs would not have survived.

Thinking she was catching the flu, Christian's mother, Lynn, made a special visit to the doctor at 27 weeks pregnant. Everyone was shocked to discover that she was fully dilated and ready to deliver, she recalls.

That was 13 years ago, and the age of viability then, Downs says, was 26 weeks.

Now, Christian is in almost every way a typical teenager -- a member of the National Junior Honor Society, he's a little shy, but he's well-spoken and has big dreams. He either wants to be a wrestler or a cage fighter when he grows up, he says. He also has cerebral palsy.

In order to get where they are today, Downs says the family benefited fully from the research of the March of Dimes, a nonprofit aimed at improving the health of babies. And today, babies born at 24 weeks are surviving, Downs says.

It's fitting that the Downs family will spend 2010 as the commonwealth's ambassadors for the program, sharing their own story and promoting the March of Dimes' mission.

"Lynn is passionate about babies," says Mary Knapp, the director for the Piedmont-Shenandoah Valley division of the March of Dimes, and to be selected as ambassadors is a special honor.

"He's probably as passionate as I am about the March of Dimes," Down says of Christian, one of her four sons.

The family has its own team for the annual march at Woodstock, and as ambassadors they will attend all the other local March of Dimes events and promote them with area businesses, Downs says.

For Christian, it allows him to meet a lot of people and share stories -- which is inspiring, he says. But promoting the cause is his favorite thing.

"What I'm doing it for is what I really like," he says. "A lot of kids are not being born premature because of what I'm doing."

Babies born on time are healthier, and being healthier means being happier, he says.

"It's always better to be a healthy baby," he says.

Christian is also a source of inspiration for others, he says, because he was born prematurely but is still here -- and is as healthy as he is.

He certainly inspires his own mother. When he was born -- delivered via emergency Caesarean section at Prince William Hospital -- she wasn't even sure if he'd survived the delivery.

When she met him hours later, Christian was 14 inches long and weighed 2 pounds and 9 ounces. He was expected to be hospitalized through May, according to Downs, and she wasn't even able to touch him until he was 3 weeks old.

Despite catching a cold while still hospitalized, the Downs family was able to bring Christian home in March.

At age 1, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He didn't sit up, but he could smile.

"If he can smile at me, that's all I need," his mother remembers thinking.

Later, asked by therapists what her dream was for her son, she said she wanted to walk across the street with him hand in hand.

At different times she was told to buy him a wheelchair, to give up, that he would never walk, and that she should accept the son she had and forget about the son she wanted.

Then on the Mother's Day before he was to begin kindergarten, he surprised her by walking without so much as a walker.

Downs says taking care of Christian has been difficult at times -- "It was much more work," she says. "To go to Kmart it was like you're packing for a trip" -- but Christian has always motivated her.

"If he can get up and do it every day, I have no excuse," she says. "It makes you a stronger family, more appreciative. He makes you slow down. I never really stopped to smell the roses till I had Christian -- and that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing to slow down."

Even now, Christian is improving by leaps and bounds by continuing with weekly therapy both during school at Warren County Middle School and at weight- training sessions at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital. He also plays first base for Front Royal Little League's Challenger baseball team.

"He's on his feet a lot," his mother says.

During his first March of Dimes march three years ago at Massanutten Military Academy's track, Christian was unable to do the walking on his own. The next year he was able to walk one quarter of a lap, his mother says.

Last year, she says, he walked four laps -- a mile.

"He has never shied away from a challenge," says his physical therapist, Laura Fogle. "He has achieved a whole lot because of his drive to push himself."

Fogle says she has worked with pediatric patients for more than 20 years, and has worked with many children, but Christian has been one of the most self-motivated patients she has ever worked with.

His mother -- and his family -- have been a big part of his success, she says.

"It's very hard. You feel like you're alone at the time," Downs says, but many are touched by prematurity.

Down advocates for women to get the vitamins they need, and see their doctor during pregnancy. Know the signs of pre-term labor, she says, and be as informed as possible.

For other mothers of premature babies, Downs stresses it's important they know they are not alone -- and don't limit your child, she says.

"Another key is to never hear 'no,'" Downs says. "Just because they are teeny tiny doesn't mean they won't grow up to do amazing, enormous things."

• Front Royal March for Babies

FantasyLand Shelter, Lions Park

Commerce and Warren avenues, Front Royal

April 10

8 a.m. check-in

9 a.m. start time

Length: 3 miles

Contact: Mary Colleen Knapp at 800-868-5894 or mknapp@marchofdimes.com.

• Winchester March for Babies

Valley Health Wellness Center

401 Campus Blvd., Winchester

May 15

8 a.m. check-in

9 a.m. start time

Length: 6 miles (3-mile option)

Contact: Michelle LaRose at 800-868-5894 or mlarose@marchofdimes.com.

• Shenandoah County March for Babies

Massanutten Military Academy's Bowman Stadium

614 S. Main St., Woodstock

Oct. 3

1 p.m. check-in

2 p.m. start time

Length: 4 miles

Contact: Michelle LaRose, 800-868-5894 or mlarose@marchofdimes.com.

-- Source: The March of Dimes