Romania’s First Lady Mirabela Grădinaru Initiates Event to Support Improving Care for Prematurely Born Children

World Prematurity Day was marked Monday evening at Bucharest’s Cotroceni Palace, Presidential Residence, through an event hosted by Romania’s First Lady, Mirabela Grădinaru.

The palace was illuminated in violet, a color associated with protection and awareness regarding premature infants, who require specialized support to survive and grow without long-term complications.

“Let us cultivate empathy and mutual support”

“Today we speak about prematurity, about the fragility of life, and about the power of solidarity,” said Mirabela Grădinaru at the lighting of the purple illumination.

“It is a symbol of the promise that we will continue to uphold every child’s right to life, to health, and to development. Prematurity Day makes us aware of how essential empathy is. It reminds us that each one of us matters and that only together can we become strong. Any vulnerable point—whether personal or within a community—can be healed when we acknowledge it and do everything in our power to transform it.”

“That is why each of us must find that strength, that inner strength, must discover our qualities and share them in building the common good. Only in this way will we succeed as a nation, as a people,” Mirabela Grădinaru added.

The First Lady asked all those who possess expertise and solutions to share them with the nation, and she spoke about spaces that would provide integrated medical, psychological, and social care, about the establishment of a registry of premature infants, and about implementing kangaroo care (allowing parents to enter Neonatal Intensive Care Units so they may hold their premature newborns).

“It is important for us, as a society, to cultivate empathy and mutual support, to respect one another, and to join forces to build a Romania in the light, a Romania in which every child—no matter how fragile their beginning—receives the chance at life and at a future,” Mirabela Grădinaru added.

The illumination of the palace was preceded by a roundtable that included the Minister of Health, medical professionals, representatives of specialized committees from Parliament, of the World Health Organization, and of national organizations dedicated to issues concerning prematurely born children.

Through this event, the Presidential Administration inaugurates the series “Romania in the Light,” a socially focused project meant to bring to public attention fundamental themes regarding the health, education, and well-being of children, young people, women, and vulnerable groups within our society.

The President of Romania’s children were born prematurely

Mirabela Grădinaru, the wife of President Nicușor Dan, has not made a secret of the fact that the couple’s two children were born prematurely.

In an interview for the website Totul despre mame, she recounted how difficult it was after their daughter, Aheea, was born early and needed a year of recovery therapies.

“I thank God for helping me live through all those things, so that I could truly cherish life, so that I could genuinely understand what a blessing it is to have children, to truly understand how deeply we should respect parents who have children with special needs,” said Mirabela Grădinaru.

“With Aheea’s birth, I began to truly love my mother,” Mirabela Grădinaru also said at the time, visibly moved.

“Only after I gave birth to my first child did I actually realize what it really means to be a mother. It is not that simple. Yes, we are women, we have a maternal instinct, but all the struggles and everything we do for our children help us become stronger and more grateful.”

Antim, the couple’s second child, was also born prematurely, shortly after his mother entered her maternity leave.

About World Prematurity Day

One in ten children worldwide is born prematurely, a fact that highlights the need for institutionalized support for their survival. Today, with the help of technology and modern medicine, even babies born after just 21 weeks of pregnancy can survive.

To raise public awareness of this reality, the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI) established World Prematurity Day, observed each year on 17 November. In 2020, Romania’s Parliament declared this date the National Day of the Premature Child.