Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week

Starting on February 7th, and going through till February 14th, we will be celebrating Congenital Heart Defect Awareness week. I was first touched by this subject on Twitter when I met a mother who had lost her daughter, Cora, to an undetected congenital heart defect shortly after she was born. Since that time, Kristine Brite, the mother of baby Cora has become an internet advocacy all star making strides to help others know about the issue and prevent other mothers from going through what she had to endure.

According to Congenitalheartdefectfact.com an estimated 10,830 babies are born a day, and 411 of them are born with a congenital heart defect, making it the most common birth defect according to the March of Dimes.

“In the US alone, over 25,000 babies are born each year with a congenital heart defect. That translates to 1 out of every 115 to 150 births. (To put those numbers into perspective, only 1 in every 800 to 1,000 babies is born with Downs Syndrome.)”

Knowing this information, and learning about Cora’s Story has made me realize that in the United States this is an issue we need to work on tackling, and work on testing, and mandatory pulse oximetry testing in newborns, which Kristine Brite is currently working towards, even only two short months after the loss of her baby girl.

On Sunday February 7th, 2010, at 3:00pm EST, to help kick off Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, Kristine Brite will be joining myself for the Momotics Radio show to help kick off CHD awareness week with Cora’s Story.

Please join us and help spread the word on Cora’s Story.