In her talk, Dr. Abacan gave an introduction on birth defects particularly its definition, etiology and types. She also focused on the stages of fetal development. Dr. Abacan stressed that by the time a woman finds out that she is pregnant, most of the vital organs of the fetus has already been formed. Moving towards the prevention of birth defects, examples of teratogens or disruptors of fetal development were also discussed. Dr. Abacan also discussed modifiable risk factors which are important in the prevention of preventable birth defects.
The full video of the webinar is available online in the VYLH-Philippines Facebook Page.
World Birth Defects Day or #WorldBDday in social media, is held every March 3. The campaign aims to promote birth defects awareness and expand birth defects research, prevention, surveillance and care worldwide. In 2019, the global campaign used another hashtag, #ManyBirthDefects1Voice, to highlight the diversity of birth defects, their global occurrence and the need for global awareness and action. It is known that every year, about 8 million babies worldwide are born with a serious birth defect, and about 3 million of them will die before their fifth birthday.
On the other hand, a one-hour international webinar is scheduled to be organized by the World Health Organization and the March of Dimes on March 22 (15:00 CET/22:00 or 10:00 PM Philippine Time). Dr. Allisyn Moran of WHO, and Dr. Salimah Walani of MOD will serve as the meeting moderators.
Dr. Abacan is the Cluster Adviser of VYLH-Philippines NCR-South Luzon Cluster.#RPascual
