Education must be reformed “because in an aging society, such as Uruguay’s, it is necessary to achieve greater productivity from future young people.” Teaching must be transformed “because the system discourages students and there are few who finish the courses in a timely manner.” Or “because education is compulsory”, or “because education is a right”, or “because better training allows access to quality jobs”, or “because it facilitates the reduction of crime”. Among the reasons for reforming the Uruguayan education system, there is room for everything, but an innovative analysis by the Department of Newborns from Pereira Rossell adds a reason that was not in the discourse of any of the politicians or pedagogues promoting the transformation: the less educated a mother is, the more risk there is of her baby having birth defects.
Up to 5% of babies are born with some morphological alteration that originated during gestation. Doctors call it congenital malformations. But, what are the risk factors that lead to some patients being more likely to be born with deformities than others? That question was asked by the team of 12 researchers who analyzed at least 476 newborns with malformations in Pereira Rossell between January 2017 and December 2021. And among their novel findings is that an illiterate mother has eight times more chances that her child have a deformation than those more educated mothers.
In fact, “having completed high school or having reached university is a protective factorbecause there is a clear correlation between the maternal educational level and the presence of congenital defects”, he explained to The Observer assistant professor Álvaro Dendi.
For example: there were 12 mothers of children with deformities who were illiterate. That is to say: 2.5% of the mothers of babies with alterations registered in the period. While, among those illiterate whose children did not have deformities, the percentage falls to 0.5%.
The weight of the educational variable is, a priori, more relevant than the chronic diseases that the mother may have, or your age at the time of gestation, or the sex of the newborn. Even more than if the baby is premature or was born with low weight, two factors that do have statistical relevance associated with the chances of having a congenital deformation.
Why? “In a future work we will analyze the reasons that explain this correlation between educational level and congenital deformation, but, as a hypothesis, we know that more educated mothers have a greater perception of risk: the more risk perception, the more care during pregnancy, the more controls, the more changes towards healthy habits, the less consumption of drugs and drugs”, said Dendi.
Among the conclusions reached by the researchers —who had the follow-up of the Pereira Rossell congenital defects team— it is highlighted that Uruguay has to improve the registries because “knowing the risk factors associated with the presence of congenital defects is fundamental for generate public policies aimed at reducing its incidence and impact”.
Along these lines, they said at the Uruguayan Neonatology Congress last week, “everything indicates that it is necessary to improve the educational level of future mothers as a protective measure.” That includes considering maternal age as a risk factor, especially when you are older than 35.
