Introduction
Fetal anomaly: what is it?
Fetal anomaly is a scary term that carries weight and varies so greatly in outcomes for your baby, medical care plans and what life looks like for you and your family from time of diagnosis through postpartum.
What is a fetal anomaly?
A fetal anomaly is by definition something that is not normal in a fetus. Other terms with the same meaning are a congenital anomaly, or a birth defect. It is a structural difference in a baby that is present before birth.
A bit on fetal development:
First, a human egg is fertilized and becomes a zygote, with rapidly developing multipotential cells. These are cells that can become anything.
Soon, an embryo forms separate from the placenta. These early weeks are a crucial time for the cells in the embryo to decide which tissue they will become.
Next, these specialized tissues become “organized” as they develop into the organs and systems of the body.
By 9 weeks, most organs have formed, and a future human is now called a fetus. Throughout this time, if anything happens to cause an abnormality, it is called a fetal anomaly.
Anomalies vary greatly: some are mild or treatable, others are serious or life-threatening.
They may affect a single organ, for example the heart, or the kidneys; or they can affect many body systems.
Detection often happens via ultrasound since it is a structural alteration, and ultrasound was invented to look inside at the structure of an unborn fetus.
Some anomalies are discovered through genetic testing.
There are also functional abnormalities that children are born with, meaning HOW an organ or system might work. If no structural or genetic clues are present in the fetus, functional problems are usually identified following birth.
It is important to note that there are MANY incredible fetal care centers across the U.S. that specialize in caring for babies with fetal anomalies, from diagnosis through birth and beyond.
We encourage you to research a fetal center near you, or to reach out to be supported in navigating your given diagnosis.
How common are fetal anomalies?
Congenital anomalies are among the leading causes of infant death in the first year of life.
In the U.S., 1 in 33 babies is born with a congenital defect. This number absolutely merits recognition.
We can deduce that over 500 children are conceived with a congenital anomaly every day in the US.
The prevalence of anomalies depends on whether it is major or minor, and whether the population is fetuses, newborns, or children.
In general, the prevalence of major malformations at birth is 2%, and in children 4%, because many problems are not recognized right away.
When including the prenatal period, (fetuses, miscarriages, stillbirths), that number is closer to 7%.
Minor anomalies are seen at least twice as often as major ones.
The most common major anomalies are structural defects of the heart, lip and palate, and the neural tube.
The most common minor anomalies involve the head and neck.
CarryMe Health will be developing lessons covering specific fetal anomalies, in which we can discuss relative frequencies in detail.
But in short, they are frequent enough to leave us wondering, where are the voices?
Our mission is to break the silence and shed light in the darkness of fetal anomalies through community and medical information just like this overview course.