Health officials are now getting concern as "serious birth defect" that leaves a newborn's intestines protruded outside the body is increasingly becoming common. However, even though they encountered such condition for the past years, experts admitted that they are still not sure of its primary cause.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S., nearly 2000 babies were born with the condition called gastroschisis, in which the infants are born with their intestines or other visceral organs like stomach and liver extruding on the belly button. And the condition is most common among those babies born by teenage black mothers.
Coleen Boyle, the director of CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said that over the past 18 years, babies who were born with the condition have doubled. But although they are familiar with the condition, Boyle admitted that they are still trying to figure out what really cause it and why particular women are at risk of having babies with the particular condition.
CDC epidemiologist Suzanne Gilboa said that there are many federally funded studies that are currently tracking pregnant women, aiming to find some answers about the serious birth defect. So far, they just have a few clues which they can use as a guide to better understand gastroschisis. They said some of the contributing factors are: pregnant women smoke tobacco; women who consumed alcohol during pregnancy; women who are underweight before pregnancy, and women who had sexually transmitted disease during the pregnancy period.
An infant born with gastroschisis requires medical surgery to return its abdominal organs to its proper places. But if a number of organs need to be repaired, a surgical procedure sometimes done in stages.
"But doctors can spot the condition before birth and help parents prepare for it in advance if pregnant women practice good prenatal care," Dr. James Greenberg, co-director of the Perinatal Institute and director of Neonatology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said to CBS News.
