January is Birth Defects Awareness Month.

January is Birth Defects Awareness Month - focusing this year on Congenital Heart Defects, the most prevalent birth defect. http://www.nbdpn.org/bdpm2012.php

 As 2012 starts, please remember that every day, 110 babies are born in the U.S. with Congenital Heart Defects. And each day, 11 of them will die as infants from their condition. Here are the facts. Know more. Do more. Congenital heart defects are structural abnormalities of the heart that are present at birth; Congenital heart defects range in severity, and some critical heart defects can cause severe and life-threatening symptoms which require intervention within the first days of life

40,000 infants are born with congenital heart disease each year in the United States.

1 in 100 babies born will have a congenital heart defect.

CHDs are most prevalent birth defect and the leading cause of death for infants born with a birth defect (despite survival rates now over 90% for affected children).

This year approximately 4,000 babies each year will not live to see their first birthday because of Congenital Heart Defects.

The occurrence rate for CHD is ten times that of the next nearest identified disease routinely screened for.

Fewer than half of CHD cases are diagnosed prenatally – and the number dips to 25% or lower in rural and underserved areas.

Many babies born with a heart defect can appear healthy at first and can be sent home with their families before their heart defect is detected. A major cause of infant mortality as a result of congenital heart disease is that some babies affected are not detected as having heart disease in the newborn nursery. These babies are at risk for having serious complications within the first few days or weeks of life and often require emergency care.

Despite advances in prenatal diagnosis of heart defects it is estimated that more than 30% of infants with heart defects leave the hospital or birthing facility undiagnosed. Detection of Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) after discharge from the nursery is associated with significantly higher rates of CCHD-related morbidity and even death. It has been estimated that at least 280 infants with an unrecognized critical heart defects are discharged each year from newborn nurseries in the United States.

Pulse oximetry is a simple, non-invasive test that estimates the percentage of hemoglobin in blood that is saturated with oxygen; when performed on newborns in delivery centers at approximately 24 hours of age, is reliably effective at detecting a majority critical, life-threatening congenital heart defects which otherwise go undetected by current screening methods.

Pulse oximetry screening of newborns has been recently recommended by the Unites States Department of Health and Humans Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Diseases in Newborns and Children; and recently adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for inclusion in the Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP), and has also been endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.

At present, only New Jersey and Indiana screen all newborns for heart defects. The majority of U.S. hospitals do not yet screen newborns with pulse oximetry - although nearly all newborn nurseries have a capability. New mothers can ask for pulse oximetry screening for babies at 24 hours of age or older, before discharge from the hospital.