CINCINNATI, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pampers, the iconic and first baby care brand to distribute disposable diapers around the globe, is turning 50! Pampers honors these 50 years of parenting by unveiling its Little Miracle Missions program.  This program seeks to celebrate, support and protect babies everywhere through acts of kindness to little miracles (babies) and their families while encouraging parents to "pay it forward" and support others.  Today, hundreds of employees, along with relatives of Vic Mills (Pampers founder and the inventor of the Pampers diaper), will gather at P&G Baby Care headquarters with their children to commemorate the evolution of parenting and the role one of the world's most iconic brands has played throughout.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110411/CL80455)

To kick off the year-long Little Miracle Missions effort, Pampers and Graham's Foundation (an organization that provides care packages that offer both practical and emotional support for the parents of micro-preemies) are delivering one giant act of support – donating care packages to families with babies in level three Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) across the country (for the care of premature or ill newborn babies).  Committed and passionate about the Little Miracle Missions program, Pampers employees  will be gathering to compile care packages and make deliveries to a local NICU at Good Samaritan Hospital.  

Tomorrow, Pampers will be continuing the 50th birthday celebration by partnering with celebrity moms and dads with their own personal little miracle stories to deliver more care packages to the NICU at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

"In the midst of this very exciting milestone, Pampers 50th birthday, we are taking a retrospective look at five decades of parenthood filled with scientific advancements that have fundamentally changed the way we become parents," said Jodi Allen, Pampers General Manager.  "In embracing all of these changes and believing that all babies are little miracles to be celebrated, we are so thrilled to unveil our Little Miracle Missions campaign, which delivers acts of support to families (and hopeful families), while encouraging others to do the same.  This is just the start of the amazing things we can do together and at the end of our birthday year, we hope to make this a better world for little miracles now and for years to come."

In celebration of Pampers 50th birthday, Pampers commissioned a study to look back at how parenting has evolved in the United States over the last five decades.  From the introduction of surrogacy and fertility treatments, to the increase in age of first-time moms and dads, there has been a tremendous cultural shift that has changed how miracles come into this world.  Pampers embraces these changes and believes all babies are little miracles that deserve to be celebrated, supported and protected.  Some highlights from the study include:

• Multiple births have increased:  In 1973, multiple births (the birth of more than one child) accounted for under 2 percent of births in the U.S. ; in contrast, in 2008, multiple births accounted for almost 10 percent of births.(1)
• The use of fertility treatments is on the rise:  The number of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) procedures reported has more than doubled from 59,142 in 1995 to 148,055 in 2008.(2)
• There are more babies born to unmarried women:  The percentage of births to unmarried women has increased dramatically in recent decades, from 5.6 percent of all births in 1961 to 40.6 percent in 2008.(3)
• Today's birth rate is comparable to 50 years ago:  After the birth rate decreased substantially in the 1970's and 1980's, recent birth data shows that the 4,247,694 babies born in the U.S. in 2008 is a marginally smaller amount than the 4,268,326 babies born in the U.S. in 1961.(4)
• Gestational surrogacy is becoming a more viable option:  The number of infants born to gestational surrogates almost doubled from 2004 to 2008, from 738 babies born to nearly 1,400.(5)
• The average age of the first-time mom has increased:  In 1961, the average age of a first-time mother was 21.8 years; in 2006, it was 25 years.(6)
• Stay-at-home fathers are becoming more common:  In 1994, there were 76,000 fathers who responded as primary caregivers in families with children under the age of 15.  That number reached 154,000 in 2010.(7)

As part of the campaign, Pampers is launching TV ad spots that celebrate every baby as a little miracle –  whether planned, unexpected, joyous, difficult, easy, complicated, straightforward, two months early, one week late, unconventional, solo, surrogate or without any hitches.  Consumers can also visit the brand's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pampers) starting tomorrow to help "pay it forward" and participate in the first Little Miracle Mission - to congratulate and offer support to an expectant mother with a gift or surprise to remind her it's her special day.  When consumers pledge that they have achieved this mission via the Facebook platform, Pampers will respond by giving baby showers to expectant mothers nationwide.  Pampers will issue different missions throughout the entire year, and with the help of parents, family and friends, they hope to touch the lives of babies everywhere who are born in the next year.  

To learn more or participate in the Pampers Miracle Missions program, visit www.facebook.com/pampers.  

About Pampers®

Pampers is a trademark of Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and the company's largest global brand and is the world's top-selling brand of baby diapers. Our business is inspired by babies and toddlers, created by Pampers. For more information on Pampers diapers and the Pampers Parenting Network, visit http://www.Pampers.com.

About Procter & Gamble

Four billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Gain®, Pringles®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun® and Fusion®.

The P&G community includes approximately 127,000 employees working in about 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

(1) U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare: Final Natality Statistics, 1973 and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Vital Statistic Reports, Births: Final Data for 2008

(2) Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance --- United States, Annual Reports 1995-2008

(3) U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: Births to Teenagers and to Unmarried Women: 1940 to 2002 (for 1961) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Vital Statistic Reports, Births: Final Data for 2008

(4) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Vital Statistic Reports; Births: Final Data for 2008 and U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare: Vital Statistics for the United States, Volume I – Natality (for 1961)

(5) SART Statistics for Gestational Surrogacy, 2004–2008, in Surrogacy in America, published by Council for Responsible Genetics, 2010

(6) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Median Age of Mother by Live-birth Order, 1959-2001 and (for 2006) WebMD: Age of First-Time Moms Is Going Up, August 14, 2009

(7) U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division: Families and Living Arrangements (Formerly "Households and Families"), Annual Reports

SOURCE Pampers