What Causes This?

Someone asked me today what causes congenital heart defects. I found the below info and thought I would post it here to share with you. During all of our meetings with cardiologists all of the doctors said that there is no known cause. I hope the below statistics are informative - afterall, the more people who are aware of CHD's (congenital heart defects) the more people will be willing to help fund research to help find a cause and a cure. Obviously it is a cause very near and dear to me.

I was in the grocery store the other day and saw all these pink ribbon shirts and pink ribbon coffe cups and pink ribbon water cups with a big sign saying "proceeds to fund research in the fight against breast cancer" and I thought to myself.... now why couldn't there be something like this for Congenital Heart Defect research???? Maybe 10 years from now we will all be seeing items for sale on the grocery aisles with some very creative logo with a big sign that says "proceeds to fund research in the fight against congential heart defects". Hmmmm....... Not taking anything away from breast cancer research - please don't misunderstand me - I am thankful that there is a platform for raising money to fund that research, it is needed as it affects a lot of lives. But couldn't there be a platform for funding congenital heart defect research as well?

Anyway... here is the below promised info... sorry for getting lost on a rabbit trail. Pass it on PLEASE!


CHD Facts
CHDs can happen to anyone -- they do not discriminate. Yes, really ... anyone. Even to the parents who do everything right. Even for the mother who presents none of the risk factors for having a baby with a congenital heart defect.

Approximately 1 in every 100 children born in the United States is born with some kind of congenital heart defect. This is about 40,000 babies per year. It is the most common type of birth defect, yet most expectant parents have never heard of it.

There are approximately 35 known varieties of congenital heart defect.

Congenital heart defects claim twice as many children's lives as all types of childhood cancer combined.

For the most part, no one really knows what causes CHDs. According to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, 5-6% of CHDs may be related to a chromosomal abnormality, 3-5% can be explained by a single gene defect, and about 2% are due to environmental factors. Some CHDs are a combination of these factors. That leaves 85-90% of CHDs with no known or identifiable cause.