Prevalence and patterns of birth defects among newborns in Southwestern Ethiopia: Retrospective study (original) (raw)

Background : Intrauterine development can be considered as normal development as well as abnormal development. Abnormal development commonly called birth defects occur because of interference of normal development from genetic disorders, environmental factors and the combination of both genetic and environment factors during the critical period of embryogenesis. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and patterns of birth defects at birth in Southwestern Ethiopia. Methods : Institutions based cross-sectional study design was used. Six hospitals were selected from the existing hospitals in southwestern Ethiopia purposively based on case load. The study was conducted from September 2011 to December 2015 during which 45,951 deliveries were attained. All records of births that were occurred in the selected hospitals during the study period were identified from medical records, to locate the birth defect records.Results : Twenty-one different birth defects were recorded. Of t...