Birth Defects Awareness Month — experts offer parents resources, prevention tips

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — According to several state health organizations, one out of every 33 babies will be affected by a birth defect.

January is recognized as Birth Defects Awareness Month in South Carolina, with health officials saying the anomalies are the leading cause of infant deaths across the state.

“Birth defects can be anything from a structural anomaly like a cleft palate to a neural-tube defect like spina bifida to congenital heart defects,” says Joyce Kimrey, the Director of Early Intervention at the SC Department of Disabilities and Special Needs.

DDSN offers a list of services to families and children up to six years of age who have a birth defect through its BabyNet and Early Intervention programs.

BabyNet serves newborns to three year olds with occupational, physical, and speech therapies, with DDSN’s Early Intervention programs serving children from three to six years old.

The help is free, Kimrey says, to any eligible child in the state.

“It’s important for parents not to feel like they’re not alone. There are really good quality resources here across the state. DDSN has almost 80 providers, and we serve every county in the state. So we are a fantastic resource for you,” she says.

And when it comes to preventing any abnormalities, Birth Defects Program Manager Heather Blackwell with DHEC says avoiding alcohol and drug substances decreases your chances, as well as starting prenatal visits early, and sticking to any plan made by you and your doctor.

She also says a supplement called folic acid is recommended for most all expecting mothers and women of childbearing age to help prevent neural tube defects.

“That has really been proven specifically in neural tube defects and specifically in South Carolina. We partner with Greenwood Genetics and there’s this excellent program where they will contact the parents of children who were born with any sort of neural tube defect and just educate them about folic acid so they can help prevent that in future pregnancies, and we have seen the number go down drastically in South Carolina. May cut this part for time: so we’re kind of a leader in the nation for that effort and that’s a lot of the work is done by Greenwood Genetics, but folic acid is hands down the best way to prevent birth defects,” says Blackwell.

DHEC’s Birth Defects Program Resource Guide can be found here.

DDSN’s Service Providers can be searched here.

Joyce Kimrey can be contacted with questions via email at jkimrey@ddsn.sc.gov or by calling 803-898-9145.