In class we read an article based on designer babies and I found an article of birth defects. I decided to look for the total opposite of healthy babies, the ones with birth defects. According to the video on YouTube the cause of birth defects are called teratogens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZpIZav35Vc These are agents that cause malformation of an embryo or uterus. Some of these teratogens are tobacco,alcohol, accutane, an acne medication. According to the video some less common teratogens are mercury and radiation. According to www.kidshealth.org, they are other causes of birth defects, like rubella syphilis and chicken pox.
“ Sometimes, a disease or defect can occur if only one parent passes along the gene for that disease (even though the child receives a normal gene from the other parent); this is called dominant inheritance and includes birth defects such as achondroplasia (a form of dwarfism) and Marfan syndrome (a disorder characterized by abnormally long fingers, arms, and legs)” (www.kidshealth.org). Even if one parent has the disease and the other doesn’t the child can still be born with a birth defect. Other cause of birth defects are error of the formation of sperms and eggs, this can cause the child to have Down syndrome. This is because the baby is born with too many, or too little or one defective chromosome.
According to the article some common birth defects are: cleft lip, which is a long opening between the lip and the nose, cerebral palsy, congenital hip dislocation, this occurs when the round upper end of the thigh bone does not sit inside the socket of the pelvis properly, congenital hypothyroidism, which happens in 1 of 3,000 births. This is when the baby’s thyroid gland is absent or undeveloped at birth.
There are many causes of birth defects, even though there are also genetic causes women should take really good care of themselves during pregnancy. They should eat right, not smoke, not drink and not use any medication that will affect the death of the baby. However, the birth defects are not preventable, but women should take a lot of precaution.
