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Birth defect is a widely used term for a ... in the early 1940s, Australian pediatric ophthalmologist Norman Gregg began recognizing a pattern in which the ...
Richard Cotton AM (10 November 1940 – 14 June 2015) was an Australian medical researcher and founder of the Murdoch Institute and the Human Variome Project. [1] [2] [3] Cotton focused on the prevention and treatment of genetic disorders and birth defects.
Feet of a baby born to a mother who had taken thalidomide while pregnant. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries was prescribed to women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant, and consequently resulted in the "biggest anthropogenic medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as ...
The drug was used between 1957-62 as a sedative and to treat morning sickness in early pregnancy. A serious side effect, however, resulted in over 10,000 children being born with severe birth defects.
Following a widespread epidemic of rubella infection in 1940, Norman Gregg, an Australian ophthalmologist, reported in 1941 the occurrence of congenital cataracts among 78 infants born following maternal rubella infection in early pregnancy. This indicated that the virus had to cross the placental barrier to reach the fetus and cause malformations.
McBride published a letter in The Lancet, in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed thalidomide, [9] after a midwife named Sister Pat Sparrow first suspected the drug was causing birth defects in the babies of patients under his care at Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney. [10]
With the growth of understanding of the origins of birth defects, the field of teratology as of 2015 overlaps with other fields of science, including developmental biology, embryology, and genetics. Until the 1940s, teratologists regarded birth defects as primarily hereditary.
The birth rate in America has long been on a decline, with the fertility rate reaching historic lows in 2023. More women between ages 25 to 44 aren’t having children, for a number of reasons.