What is CHD?

CHD stands for Congenital Heart Defect and is an abnormality of the heart which occurs soon after conception and often before the mother is aware that she is pregnant. The defects can range in severity from simple problems, such as "holes" between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.
Congenital means 'born with' and/or 'from birth'. Sometimes a CHD can go undetected until adulthood but the majority are detected at birth. With modern medicine these defects are usually corrected with surgery.
Congenital Heart Defects, also known as CHD's are the #1 birth defect in UK affecting 8/1000 live births, this does not count all the children lost in pregnancy to CHD's (1)

There are 35+ medically recognised CHD's.
CHD's are the #1 cause of DEATH from a birth defect, killing twice as many children as cancer every year.
Congenital Heart Defects are not always found during pregnancy or at birth, many are not found till childhood, adolescence, adulthood, or after death when it is to late.
Many Dr's believe that CHD's are genetic, although most people know nothing of Heart Defects till they have a child born with one.
New studies are showing that Painkillers and Antidepressants taking before and during pregnancy can raise the risk of having a CHD child.
CHD's can not be cured, the heart must be monitored throughout life. Most will need multiple open heart surgeries, some may even need a heart transplant.
Babies born with CHD's may need their first open heart surgery at just a few hours or days old.
It has been estimated that there are currently 250,000 adults with CHD in the UK, approximately 1,000,000 in the US and similar numbers in proportional terms in Europe and the rest of the world.
If you don't know someone with a CHD sooner or later you will !

Educating, supporting and raising awareness of congenital heart defects/disease

http://<a href="http://www.congenital-heart-defects.co.uk">CHD-UK (Congenital Heart Defects) website</a><a href="http://www.myspace.com/chduk">CHD-UK on MySpace</a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2361087995&ref=ts">CHD-UK on Facebook</a>

I was born with TGA (Transposition of the Great Arteries) which is a congenital heart defect (CHD)and I spend my time raising awareness of CHD as well teach English and enjoy watching rugby and formula one

Anyone who has or knows someone affected by a CHD is welcome, as is anyone who doesn't but would like to show their support and/or find out more about this defect. It is not solely for the UK as we would like to help as many people as possible. It affects people all around the world.

Our aims are to educate and raise awareness as well as promoting the need for testing prior to and after birth with the use of multi-function patient monitors or pulse oximetry. Also, the media needs to get more interested in what it means to be born with a CHD and inform the general public more about it. Just imagine that you work with people every day and never noticed that they have a heart defect or went through major surgery. You wouldn't know just by looking at the person. CHD is not visible, our scars are hidden.

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