Diabetes is focus for National Birth Defects Prevention Month
January 19, 2010January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month’s annual campaign, “Birth Defects Prevention Month.” This year, January 2010, the focus is on diabetes.
Info from the campaign:
“Diabetes is often diagnosed in women during their childbearing years and can affect the health of both the mother and her unborn child. Poor control of diabetes in a woman who is pregnant increases the chances for birth defects and other problems for the baby (4). Proper health care before and during pregnancy can help prevent birth defects associated with risks, including diabetes, and other poor outcomes, such as miscarriage or stillbirth.
Birth defects affect approximately one in 33 newborns and are a leading cause of infant mortality in the United States (1,2). Lifetime care for all infants born in a single year with one or more of 17 severe birth defects has been estimated at $6 billion (3).”
Please see their website for additional information: http://www.nbdpn.org/current/resources/bdpm2010.html
