Ohio fails report on birth defect prevention

by Brynn Burton
Staff Writer

A report released by Trust for America’s Health gave Ohio, seven other states and Washington, D.C., “F” ratings on tracking and preventing birth defects.

“Most states are doing a poor job of tracking birth defects and a poor job at finding information in preventing future birth defects from occurring,” said Amy Goffe, spokesperson for Trust for America’s Health. “It is necessary for states and programs to keep track of where, when and, most importantly, why defects are occurring, and Ohio isn’t doing what it takes.”

According to the report released Feb. 20 by the non-profit organization protecting communities’ health and safety, state monitoring programs can play a crucial role in birth defects prevention by collecting information about which birth defects are occurring and where. But most states are doing an inadequate job of providing this data, she said.

“The report shows how existing birth defect monitoring programs can be improved,” Goffe said. “It was an in-depth analysis of the established (program) or to identify the need for state program.”

The organization also gave F ratings to Washington, D.C., North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Idaho, Kansas, Vermont and Wyoming.

In Ohio, 155,000 babies are born on average each year. Because there is no monitoring system, agencies do not know how many of those babies are born with birth defects. Nationally, about 150,000 babies born each year have some sort of birth defect. But as much as 80 percent of birth defect causes are unknown because of the lack of monitoring systems.

In 2000, the state legislature approved a bill to develop a monitoring program in Ohio. But the system never was established because the state did not have the funding to cover the program’s budget of $100,000 for two years, Goffe said.

Because of this, other organizations, including the March of Dimes, want to raise funding to implement monitoring programs.

“With the monitoring system, we will be able to identify clusters of defects that occur in communities and set up prevention education programs once we know what the cause is,” said Sherry Rosenfeld, state director of the Ohio March of Dimes. “It won’t be like looking for a needle in a haystack anymore to figure out why certain defects occur.”

Miriam Levitt, executive committee member of the National Birth Defects Prevention Network, said it will take multiple funding sources for a program to be implemented.

“The state budget won’t cover a program like this,” she said. “The (state) health department has to get involved with a university and other sources for funding.”

Without monitoring systems, the only way to head off birth defects now is through proper prenatal care.

“Education is very important, and prenatal care is critical,” Rosenfeld said. “We have to make sure that women get into prenatal care even if they don’t have the money to do so.”

O’Bleness Memorial Hospital offers classes in prenatal care and classes on breastfeeding for expectant and working mothers.

“The purpose of the class is to offer information on prenatal care and the advantages of breastfeeding for mother and child,” said Michele Platt, board-certified lactation consultant at O’Bleness.