What are the three-level preventive measures for birth defects?

The key to reducing birth defects is prevention. According to the regulations of the World Health Organization, the preventive measures of birth defects are divided into three levels:

1. Primary prevention: pre-pregnancy consultation and examination. Pan Ying, director of the Health Department of Beijing Maternal and Child Health Hospital, said that because most birth defects occur in the third to eighth week of embryonic development, many people find that they have missed the chance of prevention when they are pregnant (more than four weeks). Therefore, the key time to prevent birth defects is before pregnancy, and it is particularly important to strengthen pre-marital examination, genetic counseling for eugenics before pregnancy, and inspection of pathogenic microorganisms.

2. Secondary prevention: prenatal examination. There are more than five prenatal checkups during the whole pregnancy. Through prenatal checkups, high-risk pregnant women can be screened out, diagnosed and treated in time, and the birth of children can be reduced. If severe congenital heart disease can be detected by ultrasound at 2 weeks of pregnancy.

3. Tertiary prevention: neonatal disease screening. The sooner the baby is screened, the better. In Beijing, the government pays the bill to screen newborns for phenylketonuria, hypothyroidism, congenital dislocation of hip joint, congenital heart disease and hearing.

Extended information:

"Birth defect", which is popularly called "congenital malformation", refers to the abnormal body structure, function or metabolism before the baby is born. Birth defects can be caused by genetic factors or environmental factors such as chromosome aberration and gene mutation, or by the interaction of these two factors or other unknown reasons, which usually include congenital malformation, chromosome abnormality, hereditary metabolic diseases and functional abnormalities (such as blindness, deafness and mental retardation).

Birth defect is the main cause of early abortion, stillbirth, perinatal death, infant death and congenital disability, which not only seriously endangers children's survival and life quality, but also affects family happiness and harmony, and also causes huge potential life loss and social and economic burden.

Birth defect has become a public health problem that affects population quality and group health level. If appropriate intervention measures are not taken in time, birth defect will seriously restrict the further decline of infant mortality rate and the average life expectancy in China.

According to statistics, in recent 2 years, due to environmental pollution and genetic variation factors, the incidence of newborns with birth defects has gradually increased. Common defects include anencephaly, hydrocephalus, open spina bifida, meningocele, cleft lip, cleft palate, congenital heart disease and trisomy 21 syndrome.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Birth Defects

Baidu Encyclopedia-China Birth Defects Prevention Day