Cabinet for Health Services
STATEWIDE NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT:  Gil Lawson, 502-564-6786

KIDS NOW: EARLY CHILDHOOD INITIATIVE PROVIDES FOLIC ACID TO 40,000 WOMEN TO HELP PREVENT BIRTH DEFECTS 

(Editors: This is the first in a series of eight news releases on the Early Childhood Initiative, KIDS NOW, and how it is helping families across the state. This week’s installment is about folic acid. Next week’s feature will be about substance abuse treatment for pregnant women.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Oct. 15, 2001) - Amy Hackworth already knew the importance of being healthy to make sure her baby would be born healthy.

Now she knows even more about how folic acid, a B vitamin, helps prevent birth defects thanks to a statewide program that provides the vitamin to women at local health departments.

“Until I started taking it, I didn’t know how important folic acid was,” said Hackworth, who lives in Pike County with her husband and daughter. “I think it’s very important to do things for your baby before you have your baby.”

It’s important that women take folic acid before they get pregnant because most neural tube defects occur during the first month of pregnancy - before most women know they are pregnant. It is necessary for all women of childbearing years to take folic acid since about half of all pregnancies are not planned.

Hackworth is one of approximately 40,000 women in Kentucky who have been given folic acid tablets that help prevent birth defects as part of Gov. Paul Patton’s Early Childhood Development Initiative.

The initiative, called KIDS NOW, was approved by the 2000 General Assembly and was funded with tobacco settlement money. Part of the initiative called for providing free folic acid tablets, along with counseling, at local health departments and regional offices of the Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs.

“By providing folic acid to women, Kentucky is investing in the future by helping to prevent birth defects,” said Gov. Patton. “This is an important part of the KIDS NOW initiative that is making a difference in the lives of Kentuckians.”

Awareness of the importance of folic acid has also increased in Kentucky. According to the national survey called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 29 percent of Kentucky women knew that folic acid helps prevent birth defects in 1997. The awareness had increased to 44.4 percent in 2000. Usage of folic acid increased from 32.3 percent in 1997 to 41.7 percent in 2000.

Folic acid helps prevent Neural Tube Defects, also known as spina bifida, which occurs when the spine fails to close properly during the first month of pregnancy. Women of childbearing age are encouraged to take multivitamins with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily.

The Spina Bifida Association of America estimates that the total average lifetime cost for a child born with spina bifida is $532,000, but the total for some children is much more. Because of the paralysis resulting from the damage to the spinal cord, people born with spina bifida may need surgeries and other extensive medical care. The condition can also cause bowel and bladder complications, according to the Spina Bifida Association.

The KIDS NOW initiative provided $3.5 million over a two-year period to purchase folic acid tablets and provide counseling to women at health departments.

One of the driving forces behind promoting this initiative has been the Folic Acid Partnership, an organization representing 55 various groups including the Kentucky Department of Public Health, the March of Dimes, and the Spina Bifida Association.

The partnership, which began in 1999, has sent educational kits to 3,400 physicians across the state and has conducted various public awareness efforts.

Hackworth plans to have another child. She realizes that food alone won’t provide enough folic acid and that she needs to keep taking the daily pill.

“You have to be healthy so your baby can be healthy,” she said.

For more information about the folic acid program, contact your local health department.

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Broadcasters: An audio feed on folic acid is also available. Call Mistianna Barnes with Kentucky News Network at 502-479-2243 or email her at: mistiannabarnes@clearchannel.com. 

This and other releases in this series can be obtained at the Cabinet for Health Services website at: http://chs.state.ky.us/