Congenital Heart Defect Advocacy

Congenital Heart Defect (or CHD) Awareness is an extremely important issue. Congenital heart defects (heart defects present at birth) are the #1 Birth Defect. While a commonly reported statistic is 1 in 100 babies are born with a heart defect, that statistic does NOT include the most common CHD – bicuspid aortic valve. In fact, that statistic does NOT include a number of CHDs. That means that more than 1 baby in 100 is born with a CHD. Congenital heart defects also kill more babies than any other birth defect. In the United States there are 40,000 babies born every year with a CHD. There will be one million babies born worldwide with a CHD and 100,000 of them will not live to see their 1st birthday. While these numbers are staggering, there are still many people who are unaware of the fact that babies can be born with CHDs. We must raise awareness to stress the importance of funding research to prevent future generations of children from dying and suffering from this birth defect.