Louisiana Birth Defects Monitoring Network

The Louisiana Birth Defects Monitoring Network (LBDMN) aims to prevent birth defects and birth defect-related disabilities in Louisiana's children. LBDMN’s vision is to help every child in Louisiana have a healthy start in life through birth defect monitoring.

Our Mission

Surveillance - to collect, analyze, and disseminate high-quality, timely, and actionable birth defects data on all children under the age of three years old for the frequency and distribution of birth defects in the state.

Referrals - to provide information to affected families on locally available medical, social, and educational services to mitigate disability and improve quality of life.

Prevention - to use the results of data analysis to plan targeted birth defects education and prevention efforts to eliminate preventable birth defects.

Collaboration - to be an active partner in birth defects education and prevention efforts throughout the state.

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Did You Know?

Birth defects are more common and more costly than you may realize:

• More than 120,000 babies are born with birth defects in the United States each year (about 1 in 33 births).
• Hospital costs for treatment of birth defect-related conditions exceed $2.5 billion annually.
• In Louisiana, birth defects are a leading cause of infant mortality - roughly 20% of infant deaths each year are due to birth defects.

LBDMN assesses the outcomes of more than 62,000 Louisiana births annually. This helps us find out if there are any environmental conditions, pharmaceutical side effects, or personal behaviors and actions that increase the risk of birth defects among Louisiana's newborns. LBDMN also supports scientific research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other states and universities.

By monitoring the health status of newborns, LBDMN provides population-based data that helps focus policies, educate the public, support our community partners' efforts to link families to services and prevent new occurrences. We evaluate concerns about unexpected groups of birth defects and the effectiveness of preventive interventions. These activities ultimately protect the public's health beginning early in life.

LBDMN incorporates evidence-based public health surveillance best practices including current technology and advanced methodologies to conduct active surveillance of birth defects in children born in Louisiana. LBDMN identifies approximately 1,500 children with specified birth defects annually, averaging 260 per 10,000 live births. We report de-identified and statistically analyzed data to LDH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Birth Defects Prevention Network, and the Louisiana legislature. LBDMN collaborates with community partners to educate the public on ways to prevent birth defects and to reach out to families who already have a child born with a congenital disability. 

LBDMN data are available at the Partners for Family Health Data Center, at the National Birth Defects Prevention Network, from CDC Data & Statistics on Birth Defects, and on Louisiana’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network health data portal to enable analysis, visualization, and reporting. These data are available to environmental and public health practitioners, healthcare providers, community members, policymakers, and others to make data-driven decisions that affect the health of Louisiana citizens.

Funding

LBDMN is funded by the Title V Maternal and Child (MCH) Block Grant federal fund. The MCH Block Grant is a grant from the U.S. government that supports programs for women, children, and teens, as well as for children and youth with special health care needs and their families. The Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Public Health’s Bureau of Family Health (BFH) oversees Louisiana’s MCH Block Grant.

If you would like to learn more about the MCH Block Grant or access informative fact sheets for families, clients, and providers, please visit LDH's Block Grant Application for Public Comments and Review.

Contact

Julie Johnston, LBDMN Program Manager
Julie.Johnston@la.gov
225-342-2017