Episode 786

Early Answers: Newborn Screening Saves Lives

Why watch: Episode 786 is about the first days of life and the answers that come from checking early.

CDC Public Health Grand Rounds title card reading Beyond the Data, over a health care provider's open hands, in a still from Beyond the Blood Spot: Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss and Critical Congenital Heart Disease

Episode 786 is about the first days of life and the answers that come from checking early. It opens with Beyond the Blood Spot, from CDC's Public Health Grand Rounds (September 2016), on the bedside newborn tests for hearing loss and critical congenital heart disease that a blood test cannot catch, and on how states run and track them. Two short explainers answer what a birth defect is and what causes birth defects, and a segment on congenital heart defects covers the most common of them. In Lived Experiences with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, from CDC's video series, Rebecca Tillou describes a childhood of constant ear infections and illness, school and graduate-school struggles, and finally getting diagnosed at 34 — a lifelong, often invisible disability linked to alcohol before birth. Newborn Screening: A Path to Earlier Answers closes the half-hour. For parents and parents-to-be, the message is simple: screening is quick, and early answers change lives. For hospitals, pediatricians, public health partners, broadcasters, sponsors, and funders, the program shows why newborn screening and early follow-up deserve support in every community.

In this program

Beyond the Blood Spot Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss and Critical Congenital Heart Disease
Birth Defects - What Causes Birth Defects
Birth Defects - What is a Birth Defect
Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs)
Lived Experiences with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Rebecca
Newborn Screening A Path to Earlier Answers

Sound Tips™ Companion

Every newborn should have a hearing screening before leaving the hospital. About 2 to 3 of every 1,000 U.S. babies are born with detectable hearing loss, and follow the 1-3-6 guideline: screen by 1 month, complete a diagnosis by 3 months, and begin early intervention by 6 months. If a baby does not pass the screening, go to the follow-up test — a missed screen is not a diagnosis, but it should never be skipped. Heart defects are the most common birth defect, affecting nearly 1 in 100 births, about 40,000 babies a year; about 1 in 4 of them is critical. A simple, painless pulse-oximetry test after 24 hours of age can find critical heart defects, and mandated screening has cut early infant deaths from them by about a third. Birth defects affect about 1 in 33 U.S. babies. Some can be prevented: there is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders last a lifetime and can include hearing problems. Tips for families: ask for your baby's screening results before discharge, keep every follow-up appointment, watch whether your baby startles at loud sounds and turns toward voices, and treat repeated ear infections promptly.

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