CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Many newborn babies are taken home from hospitals without doctors or the family realizing they have a serious health problem.

It's called congenital heart defects, and studies show one in a hundred babies has it.

Several other states have already passed legislation making special screenings for the condition mandatory so that doctors will catch the problem sooner and potentially save lives.

Some legislators and families who've been through the ordeal firsthand are hoping West Virginia will follow suit.

Hurricane resident Kathy Baker's son Jacob was born with congenital heart defects. She says fortunately doctors were able to notice it before he was born.

"Jacob would not have made it two hours if he'd been born at a hospital here and they didn't know about it," she said.

Jacob was in the hospital the first two months of his life. He had to have open heart surgery, but since then he's been fine.

However, Kathy says many children born with the same condition aren't so fortunate. Studies show 25 to 40 percent of babies who have it go home from the hospital undiagnosed.

"The symptoms don't show up until a day or two later when they're home from the hospital,” she said. “By then they may have serious complications, or a lot of times, the children die at home."

That's why Kathy is throwing her support behind legislation that was introduced in the West Virginia Legislature Friday that would make pulse oximetry screenings mandatory.

Delegate Barbara Hatfield serves as the Vice Chair of the Health and Human Resources Committee in the House of Delegates.

She's co-sponsoring the bill because says the screenings could help doctors detect the problem sooner and prevent deaths.

"If we can pick up a problem that prevents something from happening, that's what we want to do," she said.

The bill will now go to the Health and Human Resources Committee.