Keri Mozingo Ms. Hollingsworth Senior Project 9 Sept. 2012 How Serious is Spina Bifida?

In the article CHOP Nurses Review Recent History and Advances of Fetal Surgery for Spina Bifida (August 2012), Ashley Moore informs readers that women who are pregnant and have surgery in the womb will more likely have a child born with a birth defect known as Spina Bifida. With research co-led by The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), she proves that having surgery months before birth can improve the childs outcome if he or she is born with Spina Bifida. Moore simply wishes to let readers know that more children are diagnosed with this birth defect of the spine. Ashley Moore seems to focus on young adults starting families, rather than young children. Years ago, doctors believed that completing a fetal surgery appeared to be more like science fiction than reality. Although surgical teams can repair the spine while the child is still in the womb, Spina Bifida is still occurring in child birth defects of the spine. Spina Bifida, also known as Myelomeningocele, is one of the most common birth defects of the spine. In the United States alone, it affects up to 1,500 babies each year. Susan M. Scully, BSN, RN, CNOR, and her co-writers of Fetal Myelomeningocele Repair: A New Standard of Care provide an outlook on fetal surgery. The article by Scully and her co-writers also describes the CHOPs fetal surgery program and the role the perioperative nurses have played in this treatment in the past. With Spina Bifida (S.B.) being diagnosed more each year, it is affecting the medical field. More surgeries have to be done whenever the rate of S.B. goes up. When a doctor

diagnoses S.B., surgery takes place shortly after. The surgeon performing repairs the fetus without actually removing it. With the defect found more and more each year, more people are needed to go into the surgical field to be educated to do a surgery such as this one. Because S.B. is a very common birth defect, the rate of it is increasing. This affects me because I know that there is a possibility of me, or someone I know, having a baby with this defect. Knowing that women come in to the hospitals for check-ups and leave with news of her child having Spina Bifida, I know that I could be the nurse to have to tell her that information. I would be sad because I would not wish that upon anyone, but I would also have to be strong for my patients. Being strong for the patients will ensure them that they can be strong also.