Cuddly dinosaur has a message for children

A BIG blue dinosaur taught children about spina bifida during a visit to Fairfax Reserve, at Harrington Park, recently.

To educate children about what the condition is, Spinasaurus has a gap in his spine, a defect that occurs in 4.6 in every 10,000 pregnancies in Australia. Link to article

Disability Activist Creates Funds 4 Spina bifida

"FUNDS 4 SPINA BIFIDA", A Petition Urging Congress To Increase Funding Towards Spina Bifida Research, Education & Programs.

Online PR News – 27-September-2010 – Funds 4 Spina bifida was created by Disability activist & American Poet Robert M. Hensel in order to help raise awareness to this disabling birth defect. Right now, there are 166,000 People living in the United States with this condition, and without the proper education and funding these numbers could become much higher.

Spina bifida occurs within the first 28 days of pregnancy, even before a Woman may know shes pregnant. That is why every Woman of childbearing age should educate themselves about the importance of taking folic acid. Link to article

Calls for more spina bifida awareness

Calls for more spina bifida awareness
Bendigo Advertiser - ‎Sep 3, 2010‎

Eight years ago, Mark and Nicole Logan lost their son shortly after he was born with severe spina bifida myelomeningocele. Joshua Logan did not survive past... Link to article

Teen Masters Double Back Flip In Wheelchair

Teen Masters Double Back Flip In Wheelchair
By Shaun Heasley
Disability Scoop
September 14, 2010

Spina bifida isn’t stopping Aaron Fotheringham who recently became the first person to do a double back flip in a wheelchair. Link to article and video

Related Stories:

• Fearless Aaron's Flipped
  The Sun
  By PETE SAMSON, US Editor
  Published: 06 Sep 2010
  
  
  
• Teenage wheelchair stuntman nails world's first double backflip (after a few painful fails)
  Daily Mail
  Last updated at 11:17 AM on 6th September 2010
  
  
  

Vitamin 'may help prevent' spina bifida

Vitamin 'may help prevent' spina bifida
By Eleanor Bradford, Health Correspondent
BBC Scotland
Sept 9, 2010

Scientists have begun a study to determine if an everyday vitamin supplement could help prevent one of Britain's most common birth defects.

Every year about 100 children in the UK are born with spina bifida and other neural tube defects.

Prospective mothers are advised to take folic acid as a way of preventing the condition. Link to article

London scientists in new spina bifida study - Inositol

By Eleanor Bradford
Health Correspondent, BBC Scotland
September 9, 2010

Scientists are trying to find out whether a simple vitamin supplement could help to prevent one of the commonest birth defects in the UK.

Every year around 100 children in the UK are born with Spina Bifida and other neural tube defects. Many more pregnancies are terminated when it's diagnosed by an ultrasound scan.

Link to article (and video)

Chronically Ill, and Covered

Chronically Ill, and Covered
Steve Hebert for The New York Times

By KEVIN SACK
Published: September 22, 201


Joe and Mary Thompson had agreed to adopt Emily before her birth in 1999, and it never occurred to them to back out when she was born with spina bifida. But that same year, their residential remodeling business in Overland Park, Kan., went under, prompting job changes that left the family searching for health coverage with a child who was uninsurable.

Link to article

FDA Approves Oral Contraceptive Containing Folate

Robert Lowes
Medscape Medical News

September 24, 2010 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved an oral contraceptive — the first of its kind — that is intended both to prevent pregnancy and reduce the risk for neural tube defects in newborns if and when users of the pill give birth.

Link to article