NEWBORN SCREENING
The following information is from the California Department of Public Health’s Newborn Screening Program website.
Some babies are born with serious but treatable medical conditions.
Newborn screening is important because many of these conditions do not cause signs or symptoms at birth. A baby may look healthy even when they have a condition that could cause serious health problems later.
Newborn screening helps identify these conditions early, so your baby can receive follow-up testing and, if needed, early treatment to help prevent serious complications.
The California Newborn Screening (NBS) Program is a public health program that screens all babies for many serious but treatable genetic or congenital conditions. About 1 in every 600 newborns tested in California will be diagnosed with one of these conditions.
To help protect the health of newborns, California law requires babies born in the state to have newborn screening soon after birth. As a parent or legal guardian, you may decline newborn screening only if it conflicts with your religious beliefs or practices.
Goal of Newborn Screening
The goal of the program is to identify if your baby has any serious conditions early, so treatment can be started quickly and prevent or reduce disease.
How Newborn Screening Works
Between 12 and 48 hours after your baby is born, your care team will take a blood sample from your baby’s heel and place it on a blood spot card and will be submitted for screening of over 80 conditions, including sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.
Around the same time, your baby will receive hearing and critical congenital heart disease CHD) screening.
If you want the leftover blood spot card destroyed after the newborn screening has been completed should complete and submit the “Parent Request to Have Newborn Blood Specimen Card Destroyed" form.
