All birth defects combined include the following conditions:
|
|
Structural and anatomic defects, such as missing limbs and malformed hearts
|
|
|
Birth defects patterns or syndromes
|
|
|
Chromosome abnormalities.
|
This figure does not include children with:
|
|
Metabolic or genetic diseases (cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia)
|
|
|
Functional problems without obvious structural elements (mental retardation, deafness)
|
|
|
Poor pregnancy outcome (low birthweight).
|
OVERALL RATES AMONG GROUPS
|
|
Mother's age . Women in their 20s and early 30s, who produce 73% of all births, have the lowest risk. We see slightly higher risks for mothers under 20 and much higher risks for women greater than 40. In older women, chromosome defects such as Down syndrome account for much of the difference.
|
|
|
Mother's race/ethnicity . All racial/ethnic groups show overall birth defects rates around 2%-3%. Differences reflect slight variation in many conditions rather than very high or low rates for a few specific defects.
|
|
|
|
Mother's birthplace. During the period monitored, 42% of births were to foreign-born mothers, including 87.5% of all Asian births and 59.5% of Latinos. Among Asians rates of birth defects vary significantly depending on birth place. Among African Americans rates vary but are not statistically significant. |
|
|
Mother's education: Education level is a surrogate social class in California. There is little variation in birth defect rates by education level
|
|
