What is the number 1 birth defect?

Do you know what the #1 birth defect is?

Heart defects.

Feb 12-Feb 18 2017 is the congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week. The American Heart Association supports this week.

What does congenital mean? It means having something from birth. You were born with it. But it is not a disease, it is a defect. A defect arises when the heart or surrounding blood vessels do not grow and develop as a normal heart or vessels grow. There are more than 15 common heart defects.

It is estimated the roughly 9 in every 1,000 babies a year are born with a heart defect. That works out to about 1% of live-born infants. Some defects are not noticeable while others are visible due to illnesses.

Most heart defects have no known cause. Therefore it is impossible to prevent heart defects. There is evidence that perhaps some heart defects are due to genetics.

A great handout about how the heart works can be found at http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@hcm/documents/downloadable/ucm_307643.pdf

The American Heart Association has a wonderful, informative website:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/CongenitalHeartDefects/CongenitalHeartDefectsToolsResources/Web-Booklet-If-Your-Child-Has-a-Congenital-Heart-Defect_UCM_316608_Article.jsp#.WJDmQVMrKUl

As always, thanks for reading.

Also my newly revised books should be available soon!!

Thanks for your support!!!