Unusual Birth Defect Has Increased Among African-American Mothers

If you are an expectant mother, your most fervent hope is that your child be born healthy. But for an increasing amount of African-American mothers, that is not the case. The Centers For Disease Control are reporting a dramatic increase in the amount of African-American babies being born with an unusual birth defect.

Gastroschisis, where a baby is born with intestines and other organs born outside of the body is rare but has taken a 263% increase in babies born to young Black mothers over the last 18 years, according to the study.

The L.A. Times reports: 

Coleen Boyle, director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said it was urgent that researchers find the cause of the defect and determine which women are at greater risk for having babies with the affliction.

In gastroschisis, the intestines, and sometime other visceral organs such as the liver and stomach, protrude through a hole next to a newborn’s belly button.

Though the abnormality can be life-threatening, it can often be fixed soon after birth with surgery to return the organs inside the abdomen and repair the abdominal wall. But because the affected organs are irritated by their exposure to amniotic fluid inside a mother’s uterus, they can twist, swell, shorten and become infected.

As a result, babies born with the defect can have ongoing digestive and feeding problems. Some also have difficulty staying hydrated and absorbing nutrients from food, which can increase the risk for a range of medical problems, including stunted growth and malnutrition.

If the number of exposed internal organs is large, surgery must sometimes be done in stages. Recovery times can be long. Many babies born with the condition, which can be diagnosed during pregnancy by ultrasound, do not leave the hospital for six weeks or more, and their care in neonatal intensive units is costly.

The rise in the defect affected babies born to women across the spectrum of age and ethnicity. But most cases of gastroschisis occur in babies born to mothers younger than 20. The CDC said this fact was unchanged by a notable decline in live births among teen mothers.

Although researchers do not know what causes gastroschisis, they suspect that environmental factors — a mother’s diet, medicines used during pregnancy or exposures to some toxin — may influence the development of a weak abdominal wall sometime early in pregnancy. What those harmful exposures might be, and whether babies born with the defect have some genetic vulnerability, remains a mystery.

CDC epidemiologist Suzanne Gilboa said “we’re really trying to dig into the ‘why’” of gastroschisis in a number of federal-supported studies tracking pregnant women and their babies. Researchers have just a few clues to guide their hunt, Gilboa added. Mothers who consumed alcohol or used tobacco during pregnancy are at greater risk of having a baby with gastroschisis, as are women who had a sexually transmitted disease during pregnancy or who were underweight before pregnancy.

(Photo: Centers For Disease Control)

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