From the President

Welcome to the National Birth Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN) website.

Founded in 1997, the NBDPN is an organization of volunteers with interests in birth defects surveillance and prevention.  It targets the needs of children and families affected by birth defects. 

Network members:

• Are committed to understanding the factors that lead to birth defects.
• Identify strategies to reduce birth defects.
• Work to prevent potential secondary disabilities.

Members include:

• Public health officials.
• Epidemiologists.
• Academics.
• Parents and others.

Our mission is to:

• Establish a network of state-based and population-based programs.
• Improve birth defects surveillance nationally.
• Promote collaboration on prevention activities.
• Sponsor research into the prevention of birth defects.
• Assess the effects of prevention and intervention activities.

Over the years the NBDPN has developed birth defects registry standards that establish core requirements for effective surveillance efforts and promote uniformity across state and regional registries.  The Network has also facilitated a number of multistate research efforts to address research questions which would be impractical to examine without cross-registry collaboration.

Especially noteworthy Network products and initiatives include:

• A partnership with parents by forming a NBDPN Parents Advisory Group. More information for the Parent Advisory Group can be found at www.endbirthdefects.org.
• Our Annual Birth Defects Prevention Month packets that provide focused and informative materials on specific birth defects prevention topics each year.
• Updated Guidelines for Conducting Birth Defects Surveillance. 
• Multi-state collaborative projects that explore trends in gastroschisis, race/ethnicity and birth defects, pyloric stenosis, biliary atresia, among others. 
• A data report that focuses on Critical Congenital Heart Defects being identified through pulse oximetry screening.
• An Annual Report on birth defects prevalence.
• An indexed and comprehensive listing of research articles of potential interest to anyone concerned about the cause, prevention, or prevalence of birth defects.

•  Access to our members-only site.
• Eligibility for our periodic Webinars on a range of birth defects surveillance associated topics.
• A subscription to the NBDPN Newsletter.