Deccan Chronicle 27.12.2010
More babies being born with defects
December 27th, 2010
Dec. 26: Out of every 8 million deaths recorded in India
each year, four million are babies. India’s high infant mortality rate
may be an embarrassment for the health ministry, but another alarming
issue is the high prevalence of neural tube defects that affect the
brain and spinal cord of the fetus.
In Chennai alone, around 12,000 babies are born with
structural birth defects every year, according to the birth defects
registry of India. Even as the government prides itself in providing
free healthcare to pregnant women and giving out a pregnancy benefit of
Rs 6,000, experts here say that pumping a pregnant woman with just
vitamin and mineral supplements is not enough.
“Once a woman is pregnant, it is already too late to
correct her deficiencies or severe anemia. The only way to prevent birth
defects in babies is to treat young women at least three years before
they conceive. The government should take steps to provide compulsory
folic acid supplements to teenage girls,” says Dr S. Suresh, who
maintains the birth defects registry of India (BDRI), which collects
statistics from around 700 hospitals across the country.
According to the BDRI, the prevalence of birth
abnormalities like cleft lip, cleft palate, down syndrome, autism and
muscular dystrophy has not decreased in the past eight years, even as
several developing nations have managed to reduce the incidence of birth
defects through fortified foods.
“Secondary prevention, by means of diagnosing the defect
within the first 15 weeks of pregnancy and terminating the fetus is
another option. While we hold life precious, expectant parents have the
right to know if their baby is going to be unhealthy and choose whether
to have it or not,” adds Dr Suresh.