Studies show that approximately 150,000 children are born every year in the United States affected by one or more birth defects. Even though the cause of 60% of birth defects are not known, there are things that can be taken care of as an employer to intervene on behalf of your employees, your customers, and those in your community.
Awareness and education are the key points to prevent birth defects. As a business leader, you can play a vital role in creating awareness and providing access to birth defect prevention education.
There are variety of tips that can be used to implement a birth defect prevention plan for your business:
Tip 1. Provide awareness in company orientation and review processes that includes prevention tips for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and birth defects.
Tip 2. Include the coverage for annual wellness checks, and genetic counseling for those considering parenthood in the benefit program.
Tip 3. Provide access to organizations that offer preventive education, which includes American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. You can also list these organizations in your benefits manual and link it to your company website.
Tip 4. Provide access to educational pamphlets and brochures that address common health concerns including birth defect prevention and create a health and wellness display in your company’s break room.
Tip 5. Place a poster near the checkout or on a bulletin board to inform customers that January is Birth Defects Prevention Month and try to incorporate a simple sentence in your promotional email campaigns, such as:
Why Implement a Company Birth Defects Prevention Campaign?
Communicate to employees, customers, and the community regarding that you care about their well-being and this helps to create positive community relations.
Help to prevent the occurrence of a birth defect for your employee or someone in your community.
It may help to reduce the amount of public funding spent on neonatal care due to low-birth-weight of the baby.
Investing in wellness programs and genetic counseling can reduce the excessive money spent on neonatal care.
