Newborn Screenings

I received an email yesterday. More legislation stuff.

This time, it doesn’t directly affect our family, but there are people in Texas it will.

There is a bill in Texas, that if passed, would eliminate the requirement for the newborn screening. Parents would have to ‘opt in’ to get their newborn screened. In addition, this would not require any additional education for parents on the newborn screening.

In my opinion, this seems careless… Do they know how many lives are saved by the newborn screenings? I’m sure it’s all for cutting costs or something, but seriously?

I would have to agree with the statement, that the prenatal education is not nearly high enough in order for this to be fair to babies…or even parents.

As a matter of fact, Shane and I took more than one class before Zay was born, but never ONCE did we hear about PKU. It’s rare, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I would assume that no first-time parent sees it coming.

If it weren’t a requirement, I don't know if we would have known enough to have Zay tested for any disorders when he was born…he appeared to be a healthy baby boy at birth. Chances of him having PKU are 1 in 15,000. Chances of him having hypothyroidism are 1 in 3,500...and twice as many girls have hypothyroidism as boys. The odds definitely seemed to be in our favor. The chances of him have BOTH of these...like 1 in 42 million.

If not tested, we wouldn’t have noticed a difference in him until he was 3-6 months old. And by the time he was the age he is now, he would have severe, irreversible problems. And this is just for his PKU. The newborn screening that also detected Isaiah's congenital hypothyroidism, would have meant he would have slower than normal growth and severe learning difficulties.

So, you can see why I might be a little zealous about the newborn screening test.

It saved my baby's life!

I sometimes have a hard time understanding why people aren't as passionate about these things as I am, but I do realize that until it is your own little baby that is affected by this stuff, you can't fully identify with the heartache it can create.

I really hope that the right thing happens with this bill in Texas, and parents still opt to have their babies screened. There are moments when people really don’t understand the risk they can put their child in when choosing to forgo certain medical options…

I’ve come to learn that sometimes the gift of medicine is a gift from God!