Show 10 f This is the first of three articles on birth the leading childhood health by Dr Thomas M. medical vice president of the National noted pediatrician and dean of American By THOMAS M. M.D. Medical Vice The National Foundation first question every woman asks immediately after the birth of a child baby is my baby all In most instances the answer is Then the mother relaxes with a sense of fulfillment and But sometimes a baby is born with birth known technically in the medical profession as congenital Then expectancy turns to anxiety and grief the most heartbreaking grief a woman can If the defects are the entire family may face a lifetime of physical and economic On the tive side there is this to defects occur in relative- only a ly small portion of the infants who come into V the world every j Some de-fm can be re- It paired modern science of rehabilitation that by the time nr m the child reach es maturity he may be capable of leading a normal life and doing useful Above many inborn defects can be prevented by knowledge and simple Beyond this lies ever greater for the Until recently defects have been But now science is tackling this problem that lies so close to the hopes and of every An concentrated attack at this stage can bring about vast improvement in the rehabilitation and eventual prevention of malformed Hopeful Promise The news that the National Foundation National Foundation for has taken up the chal- of birth defects is a hopeful promise for the future The National Foundation is the voluntary health organization that educated the American public in the of With care and prevention March of Dimes funds its grantees set up and carried out the prodigious research program that produced the Salk vaccine and a whole series of history-making medical It is not to expect from Its sponsored scientists equally important advances concerning the causes and treatment of congenital Major Unmet Problem Birth defects are probably the major unmet childhood medical They arc exceeded only by accidents as a cause ot crippling and disability in children cause the death of or one-fourth of all U.S. infants who are stillborn or die annually within the first month of Children born in this country each year with significant birth defects number about a quarter of a Approximately half of these are doomed to serious crippling or prolonged Combinations of defects in one child are not There are over different kinds of birth Some are minor like poor fiat feet or color These present no major hazard to the normal functioning of the More serious widely known and include harelip arid cleft missing congenital cataracts and brain but just as are a deformity of the spinal a deformity similar to spina except that the skull instead of the is and an accumulation of excess fluids in the cavities the brain known as on the Main Categories Listed Birth defects are grouped in the following main Malformations of the skeletal writh an estimated afflicted infants annually surviving the first four weeks of disorders of the central nervous infants skin congenital heart and vascular eye gastrointestinal other But these figures do not whole The birth defects as a medical lem is According Vital Statistics of the the number of who died as a result of malformations rose from in 1939 to in same the number of formed children who sur into adolescence and continues to One that techniques of so improved that some obvious at birth can be found treated Another U modern surgery keeps alive malformed children who once have been doomed to J deaths M fl normal child diseases have radically reduced by W and other modern medical j iti A Bis i There is another way in the problem of birth defect fers a challenge of the first i ft This lies in the popular attitudes and public i 4 i Largely as a result folklore and many of the congenitally j formed are socially 1 This unjust stigma often atta itself to the parents as the It is to cc I parental attitudes in P defective If the i of stigma were par would be more willing to 1 their children to L. ical facilities for diagnosis fi As with most he K the earlier a birth i feet is the more sues fully it may respond to I or Break Down Taboos All this calls for a public education not unlike-which broke down popular preliminary to controlling major health problems as tube Once these attitudes been we can of thought the support and understanding a concerted advance on the CM lenge of birth Besides birth areas of March of Dimes are arthritis and 1 his second article of this will discuss the birth defects and what can bt iM i 1 about 1 |