{"id":1917,"date":"2014-01-09T17:13:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T20:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nchspressroom.wordpress.com\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2014-01-09T17:13:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T20:13:58","slug":"national-birth-defects-prevention-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/2014\/01\/09\/1917\/","title":{"rendered":"National Birth Defects Prevention Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>January is <a title=\"Birth Defects Prevention Month 2014\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nbdpn.org\/bdpm2014.php\">National Birth Defects Prevention Month<\/a>. \u00a0Major birth defects are conditions\u00a0present at birth that cause structural changes in one or more parts of the body. They can have a serious, adverse effect on health, development, or functional ability.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Birth defects &#8211; also known as congenital anomalies &#8211; are a leading cause of infant death<span style=\"color:#333333\"> that account<\/span><\/span>\u00a0for more than <a title=\"Infant Mortality Statistics From the 2009 Period Linked Birth\/Infant Death Data Set\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/nvsr\/nvsr61\/nvsr61_08.pdf\">1 of every 5 infant deaths<\/a>. \u00a0On the topic of infant deaths, the<a title=\"Deaths: Final Data for 2010\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/nvsr\/nvsr61\/nvsr61_04.pdf\"> infant mortality rate<\/a> decreased 3.8% in 2010 from 2009, to a record low of\u00a0just over 6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. \u00a0The <a title=\"Deaths: Final Data for 2010\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/nvsr\/nvsr61\/nvsr61_04.pdf\">neonatal mortality rate<\/a> decreased 3.1% in 2010 from 2009, and the postneonatal mortality rate decreased 5.4% for the same period. \u00a0The <a title=\"Deaths: Final Data for 2010\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/nvsr\/nvsr61\/nvsr61_04.pdf\">infant mortality rate <\/a>was 2.2 times greater for the black population than for the white population.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">A few years back, NCHS posted a trends report entitled <\/span>&#8220;<a title=\"Trends in Spina Bifida and Anencephalus in the United States, 1991-2006\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/hestat\/spine_anen\/spine_anen.pdf\">Spina Bifida and Anencephalus in the United States from 1991-2006<\/a>.&#8221; \u00a0<a title=\"Spina Bifida\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/spinabifida\/facts.html\">Spina bifida<\/a> is a major birth defect of a person\u2019s spine and\u00a0<a title=\"Facts about Anencephaly\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/birthdefects\/anencephaly.html\">Anencephaly<\/a> is a serious birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull. In 1992, the\u00a0U.S. Public Health Service recommended that women of childbearing age increase consumption of the vitamin folic acid after it was found that it could\u00a0help prevent\u00a0spina bifida and anencephalus. In 1996, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized that all enriched cereal grain products be fortified with folic acid. <span style=\"color:#000000\">Using updated birth certificate data available for the U.S. since 1989<\/span>, NCHS followed a 16-year trend from <a title=\"Trends in Spina Bifida and Anencephalus in the United States, 1991\u20132006\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/hestat\/spine_anen\/spine_anen.pdf\">1991 to 2006<\/a> for the two neural tube defects.<\/p>\n<p>After a significant increase in the spina bifida rate from 1992 to 1995, a significant decline occurred from 1995 to 1999.\u00a0 <span style=\"color:#000000\">The rate continued to decline after 2000, and the 2006 rate was nearly the same as that in 2005 &#8211; the lowest ever reported<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After a decline in the early part of the decade, the anencephalus rate was stable during the mid-1990s (1994\u20131997).\u00a0 The rate was also stable, but generally lower than in earlier years, during 1998\u20132002 . The rate for 2003\u20132006 was higher than for the 1998\u20132002 period.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on birth defects, please click <a title=\"Facts about Birth Defects\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/birthdefects\/facts.html#ref\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on how folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects click <a title=\"Folic Acid Helps Prevent Neural Tube Defects\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/features\/folicacidbenefits\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month. \u00a0Major birth defects are conditions\u00a0present at birth that cause structural changes in one or more parts of the body. They can have a serious, adverse effect on health, development, or functional ability. Birth defects &#8211; also known as congenital anomalies &#8211; are a leading cause of infant death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53676,47309,47315],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}