National Birth Defects Prevention Study

On last Friday I received in the mail a package from the Department of Health and Human Services. In it was a $20 money order and a letter inviting me to participate in a study of birth defects. This study is done yearly in nine states--Arkansas, California, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah. (Why those nine states? High birth rates? High birth defects? Random drawing out of a hat?) The study is done in two parts--the first is an hour-long telephone interview about your pregnancy, health and eating habits during and prior, etc--environmental factors that might cause/contribute to birth defects. The second part is the really cool part--a cheek cell collection kit will be sent to my home in the next week or so to do genetic studies. Awesome!

I completed the telephone interview part Tuesday night. It was really really boring and took about 1.5 hours. She asked me everything from did you have any highly stressful events during your pregnancy (um, yes, I think my father's dealth counts), and how many times I was sick (besides morning sickness) during the pregnancy (how do I know? Then she wants to know what days, how many days, what medicines, how many times taken...ack! I don't remember!), how often did I eat tofu, skim milk, tomatoes, hamburgers...I don't remember, but I did my best.

They will send me another $20 money order with the cheek swab kit, and another $20 when they get the cheek swabs back. I'd do this study anyway, because it's so important to try to figure these things out. But $60 isn't anything to sneeze at. Maybe I'll spend it in IKEA...hee, hee. Or maybe I'll just put it toward our minivan fund.