What can cause birth defects in pregnancy?

What can cause birth defects in pregnancy?

What causes birth defects? Some birth defects are caused by genes that can be passed from parents to children. Others result from a problem with chromosomes. A small number of birth defects are caused by exposure during pregnancy to certain medications, infections, and chemicals.

What is a Foetal defect?

Fetal anomalies refer to unusual or unexpected conditions in a baby’s development during pregnancy. Fetal anomalies may also be known as congenital anomalies or birth defects.

How common are fetal defects?

Birth defects affect 1 in every 33 babies born in the United States each year. That translates into about 120,000 babies.

Can stress cause birth defects?

An increase in the stressful life events index was associated with increased risk of all types of birth defects, with the strongest association for isolated cleft lip with or without cleft palate and anencephaly.

What are the most common birth defects?

Birth Defects. Common birth defects include heart defects, cleft lip and cleft palate, Down syndrome and spina bifida. Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect in the United States, affecting nearly 1 percent of, or about 40,000, births per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why do babies have birth defects?

Birth defects can be caused by genetic factors and by a variety of environmental injuries such as infection, radiation, and drug exposure during pregnancy. The majority of birth defects, however, are without detectable cause. About 20% of birth defects are caused by genetic or hereditary factors.

What are common birth defects in babies?

If a baby is born with a part of the body that is missing or malformed, it is called a structural birth defect. Heart defects are the most common type of structural defect. Others include spina bifida, cleft palate, clubfoot, and congenital dislocated hip.