January 2006 E-zine
The Georgia SIDS
Project E-Zine is an on-line educational update offered monthly by the Georgia
Sudden Infant Death Information, Referral and Support Project, an affiliate of
First Candle/SIDS Alliance. To comment on this issue, request additional
information, refer families in need of support, make a donation or be added or
removed from the list please contact us at gasids@mindspring.com or call
678-342-3360 or through Powerline at 1-800-822-2539.
This
publication is made available through the generous donation of friends and
supporters of our program.
Volume 2 - Issue Number 1, January 2006
1.
Georgia
SIDS Project offers SIDS risk reduction and bereavement support training for
Winter and Spring 2006
2.
Materials
available for National Birth Defects Prevention Month
3.
Community-based
case management program increases Medicaid enrollment of uninsured Latino
children
4.
Save
Babies through Screening Foundation offers information and advocacy
5.
Recommended
Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule for 2006 available
6.
Literature
review and summary of findings for etiology and prevention of stillbirth
7.
The course of mental health after miscarriage and
induced abortion: a longitudinal, five-year follow-up study
8.
Sudden infant
death syndrome and complications in other pregnancies linked.
9.
Improved
10.
Outreach
to youth through Middle Georgia Newspaper Project
11.
Large
crib recall announced
12.
Progressive
Periodontal Disease and Risk of Very Preterm Delivery
13.
New reports
available on tobacco, traffic safety and suicide prevention
14.
Three new brochures are available on the
National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center Web site
15.
Awards Given for After-School or Out-of-School Arts
and Humanities Programs for low income children
1. REMINDER: Georgia SIDS Project is scheduling SIDS risk reduction and
bereavement support training programs for Winter/Spring 2006. If you are interested in bringing a
SIDS Project trainer to your area, please contact the office. Training is
offered at no charge under the auspices of a DHR- Public Health contract,
however help with travel reimbursement for trainer is encouraged when possible. Groups of 20 or more only. Nursing, CLC and
DHR child care continuing education contact hours are available. Hospital nurses and social workers, public
health staff, WIC staff, foster care parent groups, extension service staff, child
care center staff, DFACS staff, first responders, teen parent programs, Doulas,
breastfeeding support consultants and others who work with new parents or
infants are encouraged to participate. Groups combining disciplines are
encouraged. For more information on our
training programs please go to the web at www.sidsga.org
2. In recognition of National Birth Defects Prevention Month (January 2006), the National Birth
Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN) has compiled an educational packet
containing materials developed by NBDPN's education committee and other
organizations, with a special focus on preconceptional health. The materials
include pamphlets, posters, fact sheets, sample proclamations, news releases,
letters, and lists of suggested activities and other resources. Materials
produced by NBDPN's education committee can be tailored to an organization's
specific mission, needs, and capacity. The packet is intended for use by
educators, health professionals, program administrators, and others in
promoting awareness and working toward the primary prevention of birth defects.
The packet is available at http://www.nbdpn.org/current/resources/bdpm2006.html.
3. Community-based Case Managers
Increase Public Insurance Enrollment of Uninsured Latino Children
Using
bilingual community-based case managers to help Latino children enroll in
Medicaid or SCHIP substantially reduced the proportion uninsured and eliminated
this racial/ethnic disparity in uninsurance, according to a study. They found
that 96 % of 139 uninsured children who received the intervention enrolled in
either Medicaid or SCHIP between May 2002 and Sept. 2003, compared with 57 % of
Latino children who did not receive the intervention. When the researchers
analyzed data for the follow-up period, they found that the children assisted
by case managers were more likely than children who were not assisted to remain
continuously insured (78% vs 30%) and significantly less likely to be
sporadically insured (18% vs 27%) or continuously uninsured (4% vs 43%). The
case managers helped the children and their families by providing information
about types of available insurance programs and eligibility requirements,
working with parents to complete and submit application forms, expediting
coverage decisions by State agencies, and acting as families' advocates when
children were inappropriately deemed ineligible for insurance or had coverage
inappropriately discontinued. The article, "A
Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of Community-Based Case
Management in Insuring Uninsured Latino Children," was published in
the December 6 issue of Pediatrics.
4. Save Babies Through Screening Foundation
The Save Babies Through Screening Foundation is a volunteer-run, national
nonprofit. Its mission: Preventing disabilities and early deaths resulting from
disorders that are detectable through newborn screening. They advocate for
screening for disorders that are 1) detectable through filter paper newborn
screening; 2) unlikely to be clinically diagnosed without screening and 3) can
cause mental retardation, physical disability and/or death in early childhood
when untreated. Underlying their mission is the recognition that most children
affected by these disorders can lead normal, healthy lives when they are
diagnosed and treated early. Save Babies Through Screening provides online
information about newborn screening, disease descriptions and pamphlets for
parents in both English and Spanish that can be downloaded from their Web site.
They also publish a quarterly newsletter and sponsor email forums. For more
information, go to http://www.savebabies.org.
5. Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule for 2006
available from AAP and CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5451-Immunizationa1.htm?s_cid=mm5451-Immunizationa1_e
6. Etiology and prevention of
stillbirth. Fretts RC. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2005
Dec;193(6):1923-35.Rfretts@vmed.org
This is a systematic review of the literature on the causes of stillbirth and
clinical opinion regarding strategies for its prevention. Authors reviewed the
causes of stillbirth by performing a Medline search limited to articles in
English published in core clinical journals from January 1, 1995, to January 1,
2005. A total of 1445 articles obtained, 113 were the basis of this review and
chosen based on the criterion that stillbirth or fetal death was central to the
article. Fifteen risk factors for stillbirths were identified and the
prevalence of these conditions and associated risks are presented The most
prevalent risk factors for stillbirth are pre-pregnancy obesity, socioeconomic
factors, and advanced maternal age. Biologic markers associated with increased
stillbirth risk are also reviewed, and strategies for its prevention
identified. Identification of risk
factors for stillbirth assists the clinician in performing a risk assessment
for each patient. Unexplained stillbirths and stillbirths related to growth
restriction are the 2 categories of death that contribute the most to late
fetal losses. Late pregnancy is associated with an increasing risk of
stillbirth, and clinicians should have a low threshold to evaluate fetal
growth. The value of antepartum testing is related to the underlying risk of
stillbirth and, although the strategy of antepartum testing in patients with
increased risk will decrease the risk of late fetal loss, it is of necessity
associated with higher intervention rates.
7. The course of mental health
after miscarriage and induced abortion: a longitudinal, five-year follow-up
study. Broen AN, et al BMC Med. 2005 Dec 12, 2005 Miscarriage and induced
abortion are life events that can potentially cause mental distress. The
objective of this study was to determine whether there are differences in the
patterns of normalization of mental health scores after these two pregnancy
termination events. Forty women who experienced miscarriages and 80 women who
underwent abortions at the main hospital of
8. SIDS and complications in other
pregnancies by Smith GC, et al. Lancet,
Vol 366 12/17/06. The likelihood of
recurrence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is an issue of biological,
clinical, and legal interest. Obstetric complications are associated with an
increased risk of SIDS and are likely to recur in subsequent pregnancies. We
postulated that women whose infants died from SIDS would be more likely to have
had obstetric complications in other pregnancies.
9. Improved US Prevalence Estimates for 18 Selected Major Birth Defects
---1999--2001 CDC
reports that continuing efforts are needed to improve surveillance for birth
defects, which are the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States
To create the most reliable and valid estimates for national prevalence, CDC
did an analysis included only states that had 1) active case-finding for all 18
included defects for 1999--2001 birth years and 2) data reported to NBDPN for
all 3 years (1999--2001). NBDPN data from 11 states meeting these criteria
(Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah) were used to calculate state-specific and
average prevalence estimates (per 10,000 live births) and 95% confidence
intervals for selected categories of major birth defects: eye defects,
cardiovascular defects, orofacial defects, gastrointestinal defects,
musculoskeletal defects, and chromosomal defects The report concludes that -
adjusted for the racial/ethnic distribution (or maternal age for the three
chromosomal defects) of live births in the United States during 1999-2001 - the estimated national prevalence was highest
for orofacial clefts combined (cleft lip with or without cleft palate and cleft
palate only), followed by Down syndrome, rectal and large intestinal
atresia/stenosis, individual heart defects (transposition of the great
arteries, atrioventricular septal defect, and tetralogy of Fallot), and
reduction defects of the upper limbs. To read the full report, go to http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5451a2.htm
10. Newspapers In Education If
your program's mission includes outreach to youth, consider partnering with The
Telegraph's Newspapers in Education program. We are available
to develop in-paper educational content around your mission, and can
assist in the creation and distribution of classroom lesson plans to schools
throughout Middle Georgia. For more information contact Todd
Lawrence at (478) 744-4496 or tlawrence@macontel.com.
11. Large Recall:
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Simplicity Inc
announced a voluntary recall of 104,000 Graco
Aspen 3 in 1 Cribs manufactured in
12. Progressive Periodontal Disease and Risk of Very Preterm Delivery. Obstetrics & Gynecology 2006;107:29-36
Offenback S. The authors set out to estimate whether maternal periodontal
disease was predictive of preterm (less than 37 weeks) or very preterm (less than
32 weeks) births. They conducted a prospective study of obstetric outcomes,
entitled Oral Conditions and Pregnancy (OCAP), with 1,020 pregnant women who received
both an antepartum and postpartum periodontal examination. They developed
predictive models to estimate whether maternal exposure to either periodontal
disease at enrollment (less than 26 weeks) and/or periodontal disease
progression during pregnancy, as determined by comparing postpartum with
antepartum status, were predictive of preterm or very preterm births, adjusting
for risk factors including previous preterm delivery, race, smoking, social
domain variables, and other infections. Thee authors found that Incidence of
preterm birth was 11.2% among periodontally healthy women, compared with 28.6%
in women with moderate-severe periodontal disease. Antepartum moderate-severe
periodontal disease was associated with an increased incidence of spontaneous
preterm births. Similarly, the unadjusted rate of very preterm delivery was
6.4% among women with periodontal disease progression, significantly higher than
the 1.8% rate among women without disease progression. The authors conclude
that the OCAP study demonstrates that maternal periodontal disease increases
relative risk for preterm or spontaneous preterm births. Furthermore,
periodontal disease progression during pregnancy was a predictor of the more
severe adverse pregnancy outcome of very preterm birth, independently of
traditional obstetric, periodontal, and social domain risk factors. In response
to studies like these, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies of Georgia has partnered
with Philips Sonicare in a Brush for 2 Campaign,
promoting the importance of oral health during pregnancy. The goal of the nine
month campaign is to educate soon to be mothers, pregnant women and/or those
anticipating pregnancy about the connection between oral hygiene and the health
of their babies. For more information on this Campaign, please contact Rena
Hall at HMHB of GA at 678-302-4001 or visit the HMHB website www.hmhbga.org for more information.
13. State of
State Highway Safety Laws Report.
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety have released Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws, which evaluates all 50 states
and the
“Report on suicide prevention dispels myths, proposes goals” After a
yearlong study, the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program issued a report on
youth suicide1/06. The report’s key finding: youth suicide in
14. The following three brochures are available on
the National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center Web site in
electronic format only at www.sidscenter.org:
1. These Tests Could Save Your Baby's
Life: Newborn Screening Tests
2. The Health Professional's
Guide for Brief Prenatal Discussion with Parents
3. Parent's Guide for Brief Prenatal
Discussion with Health Professionals
These resources
were produced by the National
Newborn Screening and
15. Awards Given for After-School or
Out-of-School Arts and Humanities Programs. The Presidents Committee on the
Arts and Humanities organization, Coming
up Taller, will recognize and reward excellence in after-school and
out-of-school arts and humanities programs for underserved children and
youth. Fifteen Coming Up Taller award
recipients will receive $10,000 each, an individualized plaque and an
invitation to attend the Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement
Conference. Programs initiated by
museums, libraries, performing arts organizations, universities, colleges, arts
centers, community service organizations, schools,
businesses, and eligible government entities are encouraged to consider
participating. Previous winners of the
award will not be eligible for an award in 2006. visit http://www.cominguptaller.org/awards.html
for more information. Applications are
due January 30, 2006.
www.sidsga.org
678-342-3360 or Powerline 1-800-822-2539 FAX 770-451-2466
-mail: gasids@mindspring.com