Saturday, February 7, marked the start of a week that is extremely close to the heart (excuse the pun), Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Week, which runs from February 7, to Valentine’s Day (February 14).
Last year, I wrote about my nephew Jaden Trollip’s (now three years old) CHD story (click here to read it) and how important it is for expectant parents to demand a pulse oximetary test, which measures how much oxygen is in a baby’s blood, after the baby is 24 hours old.
This test dramatically increases the baby’s chances of survival.
So, here we go again with the facts about CHD:
Most people are unaware that congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects throughout the world.
CHDs are conditions that are present at birth and can affect the structure of a baby’s heart and the way it works.
One hundred babies are born in South Africa with a CHD every year — approximately 11 000 babies a year in the world.
CHDs kill twice the number of children as childhood cancer and, still, pregnant women are not routinely tested and newborns are not routinely screened for CHDs.
As a result, these often go undetected until sometime after birth and, in some cases, they are detected too late.
There are about 40 types of CHDs and early detection is crucial.
Organisations such as the Hudson Initiative are making it their mission to see CHDs become as normal a scan as the Down Syndrome check at 20 weeks, and that pulse oximetry tests are performed on all newborn babies.
This dramatically increases their chances of survival.
In the meantime, the initiative is raising money to fund CHD awareness campaigns and pay for pulse oximetry testing in infants.
The long-term goal is to pay for surgeries needed by babies whose families cannot afford them.
More information can be found here thehudsoninitiative.org.
LG
