Having a healthy baby is the hope of every family, but if it is a baby with birth defects, a happy family will always be overshadowed.
On average, a defective child is born every 30 seconds in China, and avoiding the occurrence of birth defects is related to the future of each family.
What factors can contribute to the occurrence of birth defects?
1
Family history of marriage, genetic disease, congenital malformations, intellectual disabilities, or other diseases;
2
Teratogenic factors in life and environment, such as heavy metals and organic solvents in the living or working environment, whether there is smoking or drinking in life
3
Previous pregnancy and disease history, as in the past, there is stillbirth, congenital malformations, etc., or a history of pelvic tumors
4
Risk factors for this pregnancy, such as pregnant women who are younger than 18 years old or older than 35 years old, have infectious diseases, have taken drugs that affect the fetus during pregnancy, and have pregnancy complications/complications, such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, etc
How can we avoid birth defects? We can divide into three steps.
Primary prevention
Premarital, pre-pregnancy and pregnancy care – to prevent birth defects
Avoid marriage and childbearing by close relatives and older children
Marriage screening for infectious diseases and hereditary diseases, early detection, early treatment
Folic acid supplementation (taken from 3 months before pregnancy to 3 months after pregnancy)
Stay away from drugs, quit smoking, quit drinking
5
Strictly control medication during pregnancy
6
Avoid contact with toxic and harmful substances
7
Preconception screening, such as screening of gene carriers in thalassemia, genetic counseling, genetic counseling should be carried out in persons who have a history of genetic diseases or congenital malformations in themselves or family members, who have appeared in the family or have given birth to congenital mental retardations, or who have repeated spontaneous abortions
Second level of prevention
Conduct prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis – reduce the number of defective births
When is prenatal screening done?
The best periods for prenatal screening are 10-12 weeks of pregnancy and 17-19 weeks of pregnancy.
What is prenatal screening?
Prenatal screening is mainly to select three congenital defects with relatively high incidence, including congenital stupidity (also known as Down syndrome), trisomy 18 and open neural tube defects.
How to check for prenatal screening?
A variety of screening strategies consisting of ultrasound, serology, and noninvasive prenatal testing techniques.
What is a prenatal diagnosis?
Biochemical, B-ultrasound, chromosomal karyotype analysis (amniocentesis, villus puncture) and other examinations are used to determine whether there are body surface and visceral malformations, chromosomal diseases, etc., to avoid the birth of children with severe deformities.
Tertiary prevention
Do a good job of newborn physical examination and child health care - avoid disability and reduce the burden of disease
Standardize the physical examination of newborns
Surgery is performed on deformities (eg, hip dislocation, clubfoot, congenital heart disease).
Screening newborns for congenital metabolic disorders such as hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria) for early intervention
Newborn hearing screening: early detection of children with congenital deafness, early intervention, and reduction of disability
In general, for birth defects, primary prevention is the most critical and important, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention are an effective supplement to primary prevention, through the active implementation of the three-level comprehensive prevention and treatment measures for birth defects, effectively control birth defects and reduce disabilities, improve the quality of the birth population, reduce the burden on families and society.
Contributed by: Zhang Peiyun
Editor: Chen Shaojuan
Review: Chen Shaojuan
Approval: Xu Shaoru