Gastroschisis: More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Bodies

An increasing number of babies are being born with organs on the outside of their bodies, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At this time, health officials are uncertain of what is causing the health issue, known as gastroschisis.

The birth defect occurs in the abdominal walls, causing the intestines and other organs to protrude outside of the body. From 1995 to 2012, the health issue has doubled, according to the CDC.

"It concerns us that we don't know why more babies are being born with this serious birth defect," said Dr. Coleen Boyle, director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, in a news release. "Public health research is urgently needed to figure out the cause and why certain women are at higher risk of having a baby born with gastroschisis."

Though previous research has suggested that women who gave birth under 20 were at an increased risk of this health issue, researchers believe that the increase is not based on teen births, as the number of teen births has decreased.

According to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers gathered birth data from 2006 through 2012 in 14 states to analyze rates of the defect from 1995 to 2005 in a previous report and covering close to 29 percent of births in the United States during those periods. 

They found that the problem increased by 30 percent during the 20-year period, from 3.6 per 10,000 births between 1995 and 2005 to about 4.9 per 10,000 births between 2006 and 2012; this increase included all categories from all ages, ethnicities and racial groups, researchers say. 

"We must continue to monitor changes in this birth defect to identify risk factors contributing to these increases and hopefully start to reverse the trend," Peggy Honein, Ph.D., M.P.H., chief, of the Birth Defects Branch at the CDC National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said.

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