Medicine: Will the Baby Be Normal?

Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them . . .

—Shakespeare (Richard III} Every day, hundreds of thousands of U.S. women have in the back of their minds the nagging question, "Will my baby be normal?'' Each year, for most of the 4,250,000 newly delivered mothers, it becomes, "Is the baby all right?" For more than 4,000,000 of them the answer is yes, to sighs of vast relief. But to the...

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