Save Babies Through Screening Unveils New Website and Video Coinciding With Newborn Screening Awareness Month

NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Save Babies Through Screening Foundation (SBTS), the only national volunteer-run nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to the advocacy of newborn screening, unveiled its new website today coinciding with National Newborn Screening (NBS) Awareness Month. The new website will serve as a comprehensive online resource center for families and health practitioners, and will host an interactive portal for new and expecting families to ask questions and view educational content about NBS, including SBTS's new video, "One Foot at a Time."

"We hope to encourage dialogue not only between families and health care providers, but also the states themselves," said Jill Levy-Fisch, president of SBTS. "There is a serious educational piece that's missing around NBS, and we are thrilled to offer a comprehensive resource center to educate about this crucial step for a new life."

The Foundation's new video, "One Foot at a Time," shares expert insight from highly respected medical advisors and stories of four American families who have had the course of their lives changed by NBS.

"Our child's life would be drastically different had her disorder been detected by NBS," said Anita Bailie of Charlottesville, VA. Bailie's daughter, Cassidy, suffered permanent brain damage at 17 months-old due to glutaric acidemia type I (GA-I), a disorder detectable through comprehensive NBS, but was only recently developed at the time of her birth and not screened for in VA.

SBTS hopes to reach its goals of improving the awareness of disorders detectable through NBS, and promoting the need for national consistency in policies and service delivery among state screening programs. Differences in screening policies create a national health disparity, leaving families vulnerable. SBTS encourages new families to visit the new website to learn more about their state's screening programs.

In 2000, SBTS along with several partnering organizations created National NBS Awareness Month to bring national attention to NBS and its detectable disorders. SBTS recognizes the critical importance of NBS throughout the year, but during National NBS Awareness Month, the Foundation makes a special effort to reach the more than four million families who are expecting babies this year, and to be an ongoing national support system for families affected by disorders detected by NBS.

"Once you see how NBS saves even one child's life, it changes everything," said Dr. Melissa Wasserstein, of Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC. "Screening helps us identify, intervene and prevent detrimental effects of detectable disorders so children and families can go on to live normal and healthy lives."

For additional information about SBTS, to learn how you can get involved in the cause and to connect and share with families, please visit www.savebabies.org and connect with SBTS on Facebook.  

About Saving Babies Through Screening

Comprised of volunteers whose lives have been touched by NBS, Save Babies Through Screening Foundation is the only advocacy organization in the country dedicated to NBS. SBTS aims to educate parents, pediatric healthcare providers and policy makers about available comprehensive NBS, the importance of obtaining positive or other test results requiring follow-up actions within five days of birth and the importance of prompt confirmatory testing and treatment/management when needed. The Foundation's goal is to see that every baby born in the U.S. is screened successfully, effectively and comprehensively.

For more information, please visit www.savebabies.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jessie Barrett
Ricochet Public Relations
[email protected]
(212) 679-3300 x125

SOURCE Save Babies Through Screening Foundation