The heart is a complicated organ, a four-chambered muscle with four valves; the latter ensure blood flow in the proper direction. "Veins" bring the blood to the heart, "arteries" receive the blood pumped out by the heart and deliver it to the body tissues. During the formation of the heart (4th to 12th week of pregnancy) virtually any of the various parts of the heart may develop too small, too large, or may get connected to the wrong place. Entire chambers may fail to develop at all. (click diagrams). All of these anomalies are called "Congenital Heart Disease". "Congenital" means you are born with it and this is not same as having "inherited" a problem. These defects range in severity from very mild to so severe that the baby may die during pregnancy.

With each pregnancy there is a small risk that the heart does not develop properly and about 1 out of 100 babies will have such a defect, mild, moderate or severe. However, if in a given family a close relative (father, mother, siblings) are known to have a congenital heart problem, the risk is a little higher (5 out of 100).

If your child has a heart problem, ask your doctor to explain to you what kind of problem it is and how severe it is. Diagrams will help you to understand what your child is faced with.

Be aware that treatment is available to almost all of these children with heart problems.