The Prevalence of congenital malformations among live births in Diwaniyah, Iraq

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to find out the prevalence of CM in 12391 live births born in maternity and children teaching hospital in Diwaniyah city from 1/1/2008—31/12/2008. Of 12391 live births born over this period , 161 newborns had CM (12.9 / 1000 birth ) ,114 males (2.4 % ) , 47 females (0.6 %).Each malformation was studied separately and compared with the prevalence in other countries .We found that CNS defects had the highest rate ( 3.7 per 1000 ) followed by the GIT defect ( 2.5 per 1000 ) . CM was more common with older maternal age, male newborns and consanguineous marriage. Prevalence of different types of CM may help plan primary prevention measures for these anomalies.