NCARDRS Congenital Anomaly Official Statistics Report, 2021

Some congenital anomalies are detectable during pregnancy and others are not. Screening is offered by NHS maternity services to maximise antenatal detection of specified conditions where pregnant people choose to have screening, and present at an appropriate time. NCARDRS provides a separate annual audit of the NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme (FASP) to individual NHS providers of maternity services to monitor the performance of this screening.

NCARDRS recognises that those who are pregnant make a personal informed decision whether to have fetal anomaly screening or not. Early diagnosis of a congenital condition (as early as possible in the pregnancy) gives families greater choice about their pregnancy and enables better planning for the delivery of babies where specialist intervention or palliative care may be required soon after birth.

In this chapter, congenital anomalies are reported by timing of detection and timing of confirmation. Timing of detection is defined as when a condition is first suspected. Timing of confirmation reflects the diagnosis of the condition using a genetic test and is confined to Down’s syndrome, Edwards' syndrome and Patau’s syndrome.