This part of our site is an overview of a number of common anomalies. The text has been written by Ann Tonks (Project Manager) and Mike Wyldes (Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist). Ann Tonks is the Anomaly Specialist at the Perinatal Institute with a background in Engineering Mathematics, Medical Audit and Epidemiology. Her role covers managing the West Midlands Congenital Anomaly Register and supporting the Regional Ultrasound Group and Antenatal Screening Programmes. Ann has been working in the field of Perinatal Medicine since 1993.

Mike Wyldes is a Consultant Obstetrician at Heartlands and Solihull Hospitals. He has been the convenor and secretary to the Regional Ultrasound Group since 1994 and was the Clinical Lead for the West Midlands Congenital Anomaly Register until 2009.

The Clinical Lead for the West Midlands Congenital Anomaly Register is Adam Gornall. He is a Consultant in Fetomaternal Medicine at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital.

The aim of this section is to give information relating to these anomalies, to provide a background to incidence rates etc presented from the West Midlands Regional Congenital Anomaly Register. This information is written in a “plain English” style so it should be accessible to anyone, but it is more directed at advising health professionals about the possible problems of certain conditions, and may not be applicable to individual cases. If you are a parent, or have recently been diagnosed as carrying a baby with a problem we hope that this information will be of use to you. For more specific information we recommend the Antenatal Results and Choices organisation who are a charity dedicated to supporting parents through the extremely difficult time surrounding the diagnosis of a baby with a problem.

Although many conditions can be diagnosed during pregnancy using ultrasound scanning, there are at least 50% of serious congenital problems which remain undiagnosed during pregnancy, and a normal scan, although reassuring does not guarantee the absence of a congenital anomaly.

Click on a link for clinical background and 
local data about an anomaly group.