The California Birth Defects Monitoring Program provides rigorous scientific data to answer questions about birth defects… including the ultimate question: what causes them?

COMMUNICATING RESULTS IS PART OF OUR MISSION

We've made a commitment to provide data and findings to those who need them—other scientists, health care professionals and the public.

	Public health impact of birth defects. Policymakers, health officials and clinical service planners can use this data to predict services needed, allocate resources, identify high risk populations and target public health interventions. Because birth defects are an often overlooked problem, documenting occurrence can help the public appreciate the tremendous financial and emotional impact involved.
	Identifying risk and protective factors. By comparing interview responses between mothers of children with and without birth defects, scientists can determine factors that may contribute to—or protect against—abnormal development. Most risk factors cause relatively subtle statistical differences and can be detected only in large-scale studies like ours.
	Rapid response to public concerns. If an alert clinician or concerned community observes a sharp rise in local birth defects, the Program can mobilize resources to quickly assess and address concerns about possible environmental causes. However, the small numbers in most communities mean this type of investigation can detect only very powerful agents (those causing jumps at least 10 times higher than the expected rate).