The policy was then passed and became law in 1998. Before the policy was passed many people did not have enough understanding of birth defects and their causes. Many people may have assumed that there wasn’t anything that they could do besides wait for medical care to increase. Numerous questions were left unanswered, for example, why are children born with birth defects, how do we treat them, and what caused them? According to an article in the New York Times, “Progress was becoming more difficult as the percentage of infant deaths caused by birth defects rises. No one knows how to prevent most birth defects”, (Kolata, 1998, p. 1). This statement may suggest that due to the problem of the increasing deaths caused by birth defects the Birth Defects Prevention Act of 1989 was created. Another reason for the act was, According to Mburia-Mwalili and Yang, “Interest in birth defects surveillance was sparked by the thalidomide tragedy of the 1960’s when an increased number of children with limb deformities were born in Germany and other parts of the world where thalidomide was used for treating nausea and morning sickness among pregnant women” (2014, p.1). Numerous factors played a role in the creation of the Birth Defects Act of 1989. The act was intended to gather more research on birth defects in order to prevent them from occurring as …show more content…
Birth defects occur due to environmental factors being exposed to the embryo or fetus. Many factors can cause birth defects, for example: heredity, excessive alcohol consumption, medications, and nutrition. Specific racial groups are more likely to have certain birth defects. For example, the policy addresses the issue about African Americans being more probable of being born with anencephaly spina bifida. To address that issue the policy advocates for programs using folic acid vitamin supplements to prevent spina bifida. According to Hall and Solehdin (1998), “Primary prevention of birth defects by adequate periconceptional folic acid supplementation is a major public health opportunity and has wide implications in reducing both mortality and morbidity due to birth defects and several adult diseases” (Hall & Solehdin, 1998, p. 445). The policy seeks to prevent birth defects by creating programs that will promote healthy pregnancies and provide informative information. They wanted to inform the public about the most known birth defects and how they could be prevented. For example, many individuals were not aware that alcohol had a severe affect on the unborn child. With the funding from the act research was able to be conducted to examine the effects of medicines and drugs on