The CDC says a life-threatening birth defect is on the rise in the United States

More infants are being born with gastroschisis, a birth defect in which their intestines come out of their body through a hole next to the navel, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to figure out why.

After studying data from 1995 to 2012, researchers found that there's been a 263 percent increase in black mothers under the age of 20 giving birth to babies with gastroschisis, the Los Angeles Times reports. Coleen Boyle, director of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said it's critical that researchers figure out what is causing the uptick and which women are at greater risk for having babies with gastroschisis.

Nearly 2,000 children are born in the U.S. with gastroschisis every year, and sometimes organs like the liver and stomach are also coming out of their body. It can be a life-threatening condition, and many infants have surgery soon after birth. It's a long recovery, and many go on to have digestive and feeding issues and stunted growth. Researchers suspect that environmental factors, including the food a mother eats and medicines used during pregnancy, could play a factor, and they do know that mothers who drink alcohol or smoke tobacco during their pregnancy are at greater risk of having a baby with gastroschisis.

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