Skip Navigation LinksSkip Navigation Links
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC Home Search Health Topics A-Z
MMWR

National Birth Defects Prevention Month and National Folic Acid Awareness Week

January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month, and January 9--15 is National Folic Acid Awareness Week. Birth defects affect approximately 120,000 newborns in the United States each year; they are the leading cause of infant mortality and contribute substantially to long-term disability (1). In 1992, lifetime care for infants born in a single year with any of 17 major birth defects was estimated to cost approximately $6 billion (1).

The focus of this year's Birth Defects Prevention Month is preconceptional health. Health-care professionals should encourage women of childbearing age to practice healthy preconceptional and prenatal behaviors, including taking multivitamins containing folic acid, managing chronic medical conditions, having regular medical examinations, and avoiding alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs.

Taking folic acid before and during early pregnancy can prevent serious birth defects of the spine and brain (i.e., neural tube defects). The rates of such birth defects declined 26% after folic acid was first added to cereal-grain products in 1998 via federal mandate (2).

Information on Birth Defects Prevention Month is available from the March of Dimes (http://www.marchofdimes.com) and the National Birth Defects Prevention Network (http://www.nbdpn.org). Information on National Folic Acid Awareness Week is available from the National Council on Folic Acid (http://www.folicacidinfo.org).

References

  1. CDC. Economic costs of birth defects and cerebral palsy---United States, 1992. MMWR 1995;44:694--9.
  2. CDC. Spina bifida and anencephaly before and after folic acid mandate---United States, 1995--1996 and 1999--2000. MMWR 2004;53:362--5.

Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.


References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of the date of publication.

Disclaimer   All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the electronic PDF version and/or the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.

**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.

Date last reviewed: 1/5/2006

HOME  |  ABOUT MMWR  |  MMWR SEARCH  |  DOWNLOADS  |  RSSCONTACT
POLICY  |  DISCLAIMER  |  ACCESSIBILITY

Safer, Healthier People

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd, MailStop E-90, Atlanta, GA 30333, U.S.A

USA.GovDHHS

Department of Health
and Human Services