Shibata yesterday spoke to a crowd of more than 200 family members and babies born into intensive care at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children.

The "class reunion" for the Newborn Special Care Unit included babies discharged Jan. 1, 2001 through Dec. 31, 2002.

Babies born early or with other ailments can be confined to a hospital for months at a time, forcing family members to spend a lot of time with strangers in similar predicaments.

Yesterday the kids and their families were treated to a barbecue, games and tours of the zoo. While the wet weather turned the ground into a muddy soup, it did little to dampen the spirits of kids who came into the world with a questionable chance for survival.

"We realize that it is a traumatic experience (having a child born into the intensive care unit), it's a scary experience and it may alter the way a parent reacts to a child," said Dr. Sherry Loo, who is assigned to the neo-natal intensive care unit. "We try to promote that they are parents even if they have babies in the ICU. They'll (the parents) will be dealing with them (the kids) long after we're done with our care."

According to the March of Dimes, 48 babies are born prematurely in Hawai'i every week and one out of every seven babies is born prematurely, compared to the national rate of one in eight babies born prematurely. November is Prematurity Awareness Month.