Birth Defects: A Public Health Challenge and a Shared Opportunity for Prevention

There is much that can be done by both women and men to prevent birth defects

Defining the problem

Birth defects, also called congenital anomalies, are structural or functional abnormalities that occur during embryonic or fetal development. They include conditions such as congenital heart defects, neural tube defects, and orofacial clefts, which together represent some of the most common and serious outcomes in perinatal medicine.…