Baby Born with Birth Defect Every 4.5 Minutes

Every 4.5 minutes a U.S. baby is born with a birth defect, a leading cause of death among infants, federal health officials say.
Coleen Boyle, director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said birth defects account for about 20 percent of mortality in the first year of life.
In addition, babies born with birth defects have a greater chance of illness and long-term disability than babies without birth defects, Boyle said.