When actress Susan Lucci visited the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at New York University Medical Center last September as a March of Dimes celebrity spokesperson, the sound of the monitors brought all the memories flooding back.

Nearly two decades ago, her newborn son, Andreas, was put in NICU with a viral infection. "They tested him in every way possible, and he stayed in the hospital for almost a month," says Lucci, a daytime Emmy winner, who has starred in the ABC soap opera All My Children for three decades. "He was in an oxygen tent, but they would allow me to scrub like a surgeon and put my hand through a portal so he could hold on to my fingers.

"I remember the neonatologist saying, 'Never underestimate the power of talking to your baby, returning his gaze and holding his hand. All of this gives him strength.'"

Andreas is now fully recovered and a college sophomore, and his mom is spreading a life-saving message. Throughout 2000, she's making appearances on behalf of the March of Dimes, which works to reduce birth defects and infant mortality through prenatal education, community services, research and funding for clinics.

"We look for a celebrity spokesperson who has a personal reason to be affiliated with the March of Dimes, someone who will be generous with their time and someone with a strong following of fans who value what they say," says MOD president Dr. Jennifer Howse. "Susan certainly fulfills all of those."

During the holiday season, Lucci made her Broadway debut in the title role of Annie Get Your Gun. At one show, she hosted a March of Dimes group backstage. She visited NYU Medical Center with MOD national ambassador Mackenzie Brooks (pictured), a healthy and happy six-year-old from New Jersey.

As a two-months premature baby, however, Mackenzie's lungs were severely underdeveloped. When both collapsed, "they told us if we wanted to have her baptized or have last rights, we should do that," says Gail Price-Brooks, Mackenzie's mom. She survived thanks to surfactant therapy, a treatment developed with March of Dimes funding that helps a premature baby's lungs function properly.

"When your baby is in a life-threatening situation, it's to hell and back for all of you," Lucci says, "so my heart goes out to the babies and the parents."

In addition to her March of Dimes work, Lucci also supports Little Flower Children's Services of New York, which provides foster care and adoption services for kids throughout the city. Each year Lucci and her husband, Helmut Huber, host the Little Flower Christmas gala, raising money to build houses for disadvantaged kids.

"I can't say enough about the caliber of human beings involved in these endeavors," Lucci says. "I'm just somebody trying to get the message out any way I can."