Most women know how important it is to take folate during pregnancy to prevent Spina Bifida and other neural tube defects.
But did you know that The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers contributed to the discovery of that link?
24 years ago, our founding Director Professor Fiona Stanley and Professor Carol Bower found mothers with high levels of dietary folate had lower rates of neural tube defects in their babies.
Our researchers then established the world's first education programs for expectant mothers and health professionals and strongly advocated for the government's decision to add folate to bread, which was made law in 2009.
Today, thanks to Fiona and Carol's research, Spina Bifida is only half as common today as it was in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Now, Carol has received a prestigious award for her work on birth defects - a career that spans 35 years.
She has been named the winner of this year's International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research (ICBDSR) Distinguished Service Award.
The ICBDSR brings together birth defect programmes from around the world with the aim of conducting worldwide surveillance and research to prevent birth defects and to ameliorate their consequences.
The Western Australian Register of Developmental Anomalies (WARDA), at King Edward Memorial Hospital, is a member programme of the ICBDSR and Carol has been the Head of WARDA since its inception in 1980.
The ICBDSR Distinguished Service Award honours an individual who has provided distinguished service to the International Clearinghouse.
"I am deeply honoured to be given the distinguished service award from the Clearinghouse this year," says Carol.
"I thoroughly enjoy my association with the Clearinghouse, the collegiality, the friendship, the shared passion for the causes and prevention of birth defects."
Carol also leads the Institute's program of research on birth defects as well as contributing to research on intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, childhood cancer, diabetes, assisted reproductive technology and pharmacovigilance in pregnancy.
To read more about Professor Carol Bower, click here.
To read about the International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research, click here.