Does it seem that more and more babies are being born with congenital problems?

Question

Is it because of our lifestyles in a developed world and our choices in food, and all the unnatural chemicals that we are exposed to in this modern environment?
Or have there always been this amount of babies born with defects but the reason we didn't know about them was because we didn't have mass media and the internet?

Answer 1

Do statistics tell us that more babies are born with congenital problems? Actually, the numbers for anencephalus have dropped from previous years. From 1986 to 1996 death rates for congenital cardiovascular defects declined 18.2 percent. I could look up more, but you get the point. Congenital problems are not necessarily more common today than they were years ago.

Yes, genetics and the environment play a role, but exactly how is uncertain. And I also agree that mass media has brought certain conditions to public awareness. But I think another reason is that in the past, birth defects were regarded as rare events that caused few infant deaths, and that they were essentially unpreventable. In recent years, doctors and medicine have shifted away from this narrow perspective, and birth defects are much more in the spotlight.

Answer 2

Women are smoking more, and consuming more alcohol and other drugs. If this happens during pregnancy, congenital problems may occur. Years ago, this would have led to a miscarriage or stillbirth, but now babies are surviving more, so they are becoming relatively more common. The increased coverage and Internet have also played a part in our awareness, but there are more surviving as well.

Answer 3

One reason is that with the development of healthcare babies born pre-term (i.e. more likely to have difficulties) now survive and similalry those with congenital problems that nature would arrange to die naturally now survive.

Other factors such as smoking, alcohol, solvent and drug abuse do not help.

In regard to your last question. If there were always this amount of babies - where are the adults?

Answer 4

Our world is being overpopulated and won't stop growing. Simply put it as our death rate is slower than we thought. When there are more adults, they well get a baby more often. There's also a rapid change going on in the cities. My teacher told me our evolution development is too slow to match up with our external world. Maybe this makes our babies start to mutate more and more, which eventually would be useful to the future.

Answer 5

u are right....both ur reasons are true
but i believe that it is also becuase women are having babies are at older ages too.
u knwo that the ovum stays in the arrested stage until fertilization. so if its held longer then more congential anomalies are possible...as there will be more errors in cell division. u will tell me that even in the olden days women used to have births at older ages but its not like that...its having the first child at an older ages....
child abortion has also become common....mostly its teh first child thats aborted...so the child born is always of the aged ovum.
but ur reasons are also strong

Answer 6

I think, that someone a whole lot smarter than I should answer this.

That being said, it sure seems like it's gotten worse over the course of my almost 50 years.

Answer 7

babies don't have more congenital problems, its the parents that have the problems, they think that just because there is medication out there for real life problems that their child has it.