Abstract

 Background: Birth defects are significant cause of pregnancy losses and long term mental, physical, auditory or visual disability in the survivors.

Aim: To determine at birth the prevalence and spectrum of birth defects and associated maternal risk factors at a tertiary care hospital in North India.

Methodology: It was an observational study carried out from November 2013 to October 2014. The study group consisted of women delivering a live or stillborn baby with birth defect/s and control group of babies delivering consecutive to the study case. All births were followed until discharge or death in the hospital. The main outcomes were the type of birth defects and associated risk factors. Quantitative data was analyzed by SPSS version 21.0 and qualitative data by Chi-square test, p value < 0.05 considered significant.

Results: Out of 25,465 singleton births, 287 (113/10,000 births) had birth defects. Prevalence of birth defects among stillbirths was higher as compared to live births (4.54% and 1.04%, respectively, p < 0.0001). Defects of central nervous system (CNS) were the commonest (36.2%) followed by orofacial clefts (18.6%) and gastrointestinal defects (14.1%). Among CNS birth defects, neural tube defects were the highest (65.6%) followed by hydrocephalous (26.6%). Lack of periconceptional folic acid supplementation, maternal age >30 years, gestational age