Here he asks the question, why do so many newborn babies have a defect?
The dramatic increase in the number of babies born with defects is a cause for serious concern. No one can ignore a report that states these defects have increased by 50 per cent over the past five years. If the finding represents a genuine increase and not merely increased reporting of minor problems, there are massive implications. As someone who has spent many years in the field of foetal medicine, I am especially concerned that we should quickly try to pinpoint exactly why these increases have come about. Are the causes to do with environmental factors, our diet, the way we live our lives today? And if they are, what can we do to stop this becoming a ticking timebomb that could dramatically affect future generations? To make matters more complicated, these days we are seeing different age groups commonly getting pregnant – younger teenage mothers, and older mothers into their forties. Different age groups present different problems in different proportions. One of the serious defec
