Maternal risk factors in cleft lip and palate: case control study

Three hundred and sis mothers who gave birth to babies with cleft lip, or p alate, or both, were matched with 306 who gave birth to healthy babies in t he same area during the same time period, Significantly more babies in the cleft group had a family history of clefts (48/306 compared with 7/306, P<0 .0001). In the cases studied, combined cleft lip and palate was significant ly more common among bogs (82/157 compared with 57/149, P=0.02) and cleft p alate alone among girls (48/149 compared with 22/157, P=0.0002). Significan tly more mothers reported some sort of illness during early pregnancy (101/ 306 compared with 74/306, P = 0.02). There were no differences between the groups as far as dietary preferences were concerned but during early pregna ncy the mothers who ga ce birth to babies with defects tended to drink less alcohol (<1 unit/week) (236 compared with 199, P = 0.001) and less coffee (<1 cup/week) (159/306 compared with 131, P = 0.03). However, in each case similar proportions gave up once the pregnancy was confirmed. Large multice ntre studies are required to confirm or refute these findings.