National Birth Defects Registry

The risk for birth defects is small during the first 2 weeks after conception but rises severely and peaks shortly after week 3. But week 8, the risk has declined again, and it will continue to fall until the baby is born.

Child is a gift from God. Every parent hopes for a healthy child. However, abnormalities in the fetus growth becoming common nowadays. These may be due to physical, radiation and chemical factors. These factors will cause deformities such as genetic mutation which causes mental retardation, abnormal body buildup and other conditions which bring a lot of troubles in the future to the child themselves and their parents. Modern technologies and innovations in the medical field had developed a method to detect the abnormality before delivery and prevent this future tragedy to happen. This method is known as prenatal screening. There are several advantages and disadvantages of prenatal screening.

Premature birth is an important public health priority in terms of health of women and infants. Every year an estimated 15 million preterm babies are born and this number is still rising (WHO, 2015).In 2014, 1 of every 10 babies born in United States were premature and black infants were 50% more likely to be born premature than white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific islander infants (CDC,2015). Almost 1 million children die each year due to complications of premature birth (WHO, 2015). Major survivors face lifelong disabilities like learning disabilities, hearing, visual, feeding, digestive, breathing and respiratory problems (CDC, 2015) and low birth weight (March of Dimes, 2014). A major challenge in decreasing the rate of preterm birth is

E. Why is the 28th week a crucial point in the development of the fetus?

According to Healthy People 2020, "Improving the well-being of mothers, infants, and children, is an important public health goal for the United States. Their well-being determines the health of the next generation and can help predict future public health challenges for families, communities, and the health care system" (Healthy People 2020, 2015). Infant mortality is defined as the death of an infant before his or her first birthday, while fetal mortality is defined as the intrauterine death of a fetus at any gestational age (MMRW, 2013 and MacDorman, Kirmeyer & Wilson, 2012). In the United States an estimated 13,000 fetal deaths occurred ≥ 28 weeks gestation making up 28% of all perinatal deaths in 2006, the latest year with available national data (Lee,

Debra Jones explained her connection to the March of Dimes as a perinatal specialist at the Perinatal and Gynecologic Specialists of the Palm Beaches, Inc. and the benefits of the March of Dimes research to improve the health of mothers and babies and providing recourses to the medical community and community in general to insure healthy pregnancy and delivery. She explained about March of Dimes Board of Directors mission to be at the Frontline to decrease prematurity in Florida. She noted that Florida graded “D” in 2015 with the rate of prematurity of 13.6% while across the nation the rate of prematurity is 11.4%, and highlighted that the goal of the March of Dimes is to decrease the prematurity rate to 9.6% across the nation for 2020. She

The advanced technology today makes it possible to fetus’s potential conditions when it is born. Not everything is perfect and sometimes we find out that a baby

Birth defects, also known as congenital anomalies, is the second leading cause of death for infant accounted for 20.9 percent of all infant deaths in U.S in 2011 (U.S. Dept, 2016).

genes out of 100,000 that make up who we are. This is caused by the genes

Science has evolved rapidly, from paternal test, to vitro fertilization (IVF) and testing embryos for genetic defects; and recently talks of designer babies. The first genetically tested embryo was in the US in 2000 . With his birth, came a law in the UK, (which was where this baby was born) prohibiting the creation of more of these babies. This law was created since the British Medical Association, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, said that these babies would feel as “medical products”. This law still remains today, but the UK has allowed “the creation of babies with DNA from two women and one man” (Gallagher), to prevent the birth of a baby with "mitochondrial diseases ". After the world discovered that the Chinese found a way to edit genes,

    According to parents.com, after conception, a fetus begins to develop rather quickly. In the fifth week of pregnancy, a baby’s heart begins to beat. A baby also develops three distinct layers, ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. These three layers will eventually form the body systems that are necessary

First trimester: By 12 weeks of pregnancy the foetus will be fully formed. The ovum grows and develops certain important parts of the baby’s body such as spinal cord, nervous system, gastrointestinal system, heart and lungs in the first four weeks from conception. The heart starts beating and brain and other organs forms by eight weeks. At this stage, the face is formed and arms and legs start to move. The baby grows to 3 inches long and

While it is the most common birth defect, the Cleft Palate is not something commonly known until it has been experienced by you or someone you know. Statistics show that is occurs in one in 700 babies worldwide. It is a congenital birth defect in the upper part of the mouth where the roof of the mouth is not joined together, ultimately affecting the shape and function of the mouth. Doctors do believe that genetics and environment both affect the fetus during early pregnancy and cause this condition to occur. Treatment is possible both after birth and throughout a child’s lifetime through surgery and then therapies. Children who do not have access to cleft palate surgery, run the risk for hearing, speaking, social and academic difficulties,

A: Many researchers haven’t quit found out the cause of this, but they do know many different reasons why this can occur to an unborn baby. Many cases will indeed show that the first three months in a pregnancy are when most birth defects occur when all of the organs are beginning to form in the fetus. One regular cause is amniotic band syndrome. What it is, is when the inner fetal membrane ruptures without injury to the outer membrane. Another reason of this disease is when fibrous bands from the ruptured amnion float in the fluid and become intertwined with the fetus, which then leads to reducing the blood supply to the developing limbs and then the limb becomes suffocated and leads for it to die. Once this happens the dead limb is absorbed into the amniotic fluid.

In 2002, a case-control study was started in Brittanny, France. The candidates were women who were well into their second trimester (Douglas). Out of this study, they concluded that 79 out of the 580 babies were born with birth defects (Douglas). The mothers were questioned about their home lives and their hobbies, along with their occupation. Twenty-nine percent of the women were found to be exposed to these solvents based on the products they use in their home while twenty-one percent of women were exposed to harmful products through their profession (Douglas). “Women who reported regular exposure to solvents were four times more likely to have a baby with an oral cleft as compared to women who did not report regular exposure. Using job