VIDALIA — Miss-Lou residents will unite against premature birth and birth defects this weekend.

The River Cities March for Babies — a March of Dimes event — will be 9 a.m. Saturday. Registration starts at 8 a.m.

The walk will start and end at the Vidalia Conference and Convention Center after participants make a loop on the Vidalia Riverwalk, March of Dimes Cenla Division Director Lauren Sullivan said.

“The goal of the March of Dimes is to give all babies a healthy start, and one of the ways we do that is through our mission is working toward reducing premature birth, infant mortality and birth defects,” Sullivan said.

Babies born prematurely have a much greater potential of having disabilities or dying.

During the year, teams raise money for the March for Babies, and the funds are totaled at the event.

The monies raised by the March for Babies are used to make grants to organizations who do research about premature birth or who actively work to improve the health of pregnant women, infants and women of childbearing age.

One example of March of Dimes research being put into action was a campaign to inform pregnant women to get enough folic acid, Sullivan said.

“The March of Dimes discovered that a lack of folic acid contributed to several significant birth defects,” Sullivan said. “Once that campaign really came to fruition, we saw the number of those types of birth defects fall drastically.”

This year’s poster child for the event is Jenna Birley, a 3-year-old Vidalia resident who was born weighing 1 pound 11 ounces.

The most recent report card issued by the March of Dimes on premature birth gave the nation as a whole a “D” and Louisiana an “F.”

“That’s a pretty poor score, and it is something we will work toward ending and getting that score back up,” Sullivan said.

For more information about the March of Dimes, go to www.marchofdimes.com.