I’m going to revive a weekly feature I had in place earlier this year: Raising Them Green’s Science Wednesdays. I’m a fan of science and environmental studies and each Wednesday, I plan to bring a family or parenting-related environmental study to your attention. This week I’ll be focusing on a new study that examines the link between maternal occupation and birth defects.
The study, Maternal occupation and the risk of birth defects: an overview from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, was published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal. The objective of the study was “to examine the association between a spectrum of 24 maternal occupations and 45 birth defects for hypothesis generating purposes.”
The 45 birth defects were organized into several categories including the central nervous system, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, orofacial, and many other categories. Some of the occupations targeted in the study were scientists, artists, healthcare workers, cosmetologists, teachers, landscapers, and farm workers.
Two conditions were seen in mothers who were artists: APVR (a cardiovascular birth defect) and intercalary limb deficiency. Several conditions were seen in the healthcare workers group including hydrocephalus, oral clefts, and transverse limb deficiency.
To learn more about the relationship between maternal occupation and birth defects, download the study: Maternal occupation and the risk of birth defects: an overview from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (PDF).
As the mother of two children with special health care needs, I want to note that I’m not sharing this to lay blame for a child’s birth defects on the mother. Sometimes, as mothers, we get defensive when we see information that may appear to blame us for what is going on with our children. This is definitely not the case and this post is meant to be more informative as to how one’s occupation can have an affect on a growing fetus.
Photo: karindalziel
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