In the United States:

There are approximately 6 million pregnancies every year throughout the United States:

* 4,058,000 live births

* 1,995,840 pregnancy losses

1 in 2500 babies is diagnosed with CDH. That means over 1600 babies are born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia EVERY YEAR in the United States Alone.

With a 50% survival rate, 800 of those babies will die.

Today, and every day, at least 4 families will be devastated with the news of CDH.

Worldwide:

The World Census Bureau estimates that in 2008 over 350,000 babies are born in the world every day = 147 babies will be born with CDH every day.

According to the IDB (International Database) from the U.S. Census site, 257 people are born every minute globally. That means that somewhere in the world, every 10 minutes a baby is born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. Every 10 minutes.

1 CDH baby every 10 minutes.

These numbers add up to over a half million CDH babies since January 1, 2000!



No one knows the cause of CDH.

No one knows how to prevent CDH.

The cause of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia is still not known but it has been associated with several genetic anomalies such as Fryns Syndrome, Cornelia deLange System, Trisomy 18, 21 and 22.

Is has been suggested in some medical journals, but not proven, that thalidomide, quinine, phenmetrazine and nitrofen may cause CDH. A Vitamin A diet deficiency is known to cause CDH is lab rats.

Hardly anyone knows what CDH is unless someone you love has been affected by it.

CHERUBS and the CDH Study Group are the only 2 organizations actively researching Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia on a global platform. CHERUBS is the only organization offering global support to families of children born with CDH, with members in 38 countries.

20% of CDH pregnancies also are diagnosed with polyhydramnios, an over abundance of amniotic fluid



In CHERUBS Membership:

- CDH has both occurred and not occurred in identical twins.

- We have many set of fraternal twins with one baby with CDH and the other healthy

- 3 families out of 2500 have had 3 children each with CDH. The reoccurance rate of CDH in siblings, without any other birth defects or genetic anomalies is 2%

- Our oldest living survivor of CDH is 62 years old. We have over 100 survivors over 18 yrs old.

- 3 of our members, all male, have had 6 CDH repairs each.

- CDH has been diagnosed in utero as early as 10 weeks for several of our members.

- Many of our adult survivors have gone on to have healthy babies and pregnancies of their own. Only 2 families have both a parent and a child born with CDH.

- Several of our members were diagnosed with CDH after 2 yrs old, with the oldest over 40 yrs old.

What can you do to help?

Raise awareness.

Donate to research.

Participate in events.

Help support CDH families.

References:

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/main/statistics.html
http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/pop/metronome.php
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/


Per all the false claims (IRS, State of NC, Google, MSN, Yahoo, Cafe Press, Zazzle, etc) made by Elizabeth Doyle-Propst of Breath of Hope, Inc to many different companies and search engines we are now posting the references and origins of these statistics and information - despite that most of this information is common knowledge to those who work with or are personly affected by CDH - we have posted the following to try to deter any other complaints:

 
¹ CDH strikes 1 in every 2500 babies

A population-based study of congenital diaphragmatic hernia.  - Torfs CP, Curry CJ, Bateson TF, Honoré LH.
California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, Emeryville 94608.

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia; Prem Puri; Current Problems in Surgery; Volume XXI Number 10 October 1994

Medical Research Society; Communications for the Spring Meeting of the Medical Research Society, held in conjunction with the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal College of Physicians, London on 28th February 2005 at the Royal College of Physicians, London.

² There are more babies born with CDH than with Cystic Fibrosis (1 in 3900) and it's almost as common as Spina Bifida (7 in 10,000)

Alder Hey Doctors Leading the Way on Child Health; Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust; 2001

Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust - Alder Hey; Research Board Meeeting; Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust; 2004

Improving lung growth in babies before birth - Edwin Jesudason , Academy of Medical Sciences, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool ; 2003

Fog2 Is Required for Normal Diaphragm and Lung Development in Mice and Humans -Kate G Ackerman, Bruce J Herron, Sara O Vargas, Hailu Huang, Sergei G Tevosian, Lazaros Kochilas, Cherie Rao, Barbara R Pober, Randal P Babiuk, Jonathan A Epstein, John J Greer, and David R Beier

Fetal Surgery for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia: The North American Experience - Darrell L. Cass MD
Texas Center for Fetal Surgery, Texas Children’s Hospital and the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, and Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

Small lungs and suspect smooth muscle: congenital diaphragmatic hernia and the smooth muscle hypothesis. -  Jesudason EC.
Department of Paediatric Surgery, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Division of Child Health, School of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.

Congenital diaphragmatic defects and associated syndromes, malformations, and chromosome anomalies: A retrospective study of 60 patients and literature review - Gregory M. Enns, Victoria A. Cox, Ruth B. Goldstein , David L. Gibbs , Michael R. Harrison , Mahin Golabi
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, California
Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, California
Fetal Treatment Center, University of California, San Francisco, California

³  CHERUBS is working hard to raise Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness!

Rainbow of Hope first used this term on-line in July, 2006

So?  Blog post by Elizabeth Doyle-Propst in which  she concedes that CHERUBS used the term "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" before Breath of Hope, Inc.

Letter by Stacy Everett-Harding in which she concedes that Jana Llewellyn and Rainbow of Hope used the term "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" before Breath of Hope, Inc.



cherubs Yahoo Group Listserv digest #202.  1999

cherubs Yahoo Group Listserv digest #26033.  2004

cherubs Yahoo Group Listserv digest #3171.  1999

cherubs Yahoo Group Listserv digest #3590.  1999

cherubs Yahoo Group Listserv digest #7289.  2000

cherubs Yahoo Group Listserv digest #5787.  2000