--- title: More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Body description: The CDC found that more and more babies are being born with their organs outside their bodies, and scientists don't know why. canonical: https://time.com/4190247/babies-organs-gastroschisis-trend/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-22T16:21:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:21:56.273Z article:section: Health og:title: More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Body og:description: Scientists don't know why the number of cases is increasing og:url: https://time.com/4190247/babies-organs-gastroschisis-trend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt197764c028be960f/69887a2df887dcaeb5e9443e/gastroschisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3366 og:image:height: 1893 og:image:alt: GIFT PROGRAM--03/06/07--RN Janet Downey blocks the light from Amy Joy Jones' eye so she can fall bac og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Body twitter:description: Scientists don't know why the number of cases is increasing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt197764c028be960f/69887a2df887dcaeb5e9443e/gastroschisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Body > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=35af53a9-a466-4d0e-b279-55c98216759e&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 22, 2016 4:21 PM UTC  Three month old Amy Joy Jones was diagnosed with Gastroschisis, a birth defect in which an infant's intestines stick out of the body through a defect on one side of the umbilical cord. Three month old Amy Joy Jones was diagnosed with Gastroschisis, a birth defect in which an infant's intestines stick out of the body through a defect on one side of the umbilical cord. Tara Walton—Toronto Star/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 22, 2016 4:21 PM UTC It’s something no parent ever wants to experience: having an infant born with organs outside his or her body, and being immediately whisked off to surgery. But it’s something more and more are having to face as a disturbing increase in the number of these cases is leaving scientists confounded. In [a report](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6502a2.htm) published Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described gastroschisis as “a serious congenital defect in which the intestines protrude through an opening in the abdominal wall.” It was already documented that gastroschisis is more common among younger mothers, and the prevalence of the defect had nearly doubled between 1995 to 2005\. But in the new report, the CDC found that prevalence is still increasing, and it’s correlated to race as well. Between 1995 to 2012, incidents of gastroschisis increased in every category of maternal age and race. But the increase was largest by far among non-Hispanic black mothers who were less than 20 years old: gastroschisis increased by 263% during that 18-year period. The CDC [estimates](http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/gastroschisis.html) that just under 2,000 babies are born each year with gastroschisis. But the exact causes of the defect are still unknown, and scientists do not know why it is happening more and more. “Public health research is urgently needed to identify the causal factor(s) contributing to this increase,” the report says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4190247/babies-organs-gastroschisis-trend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4190247/babies-organs-gastroschisis-trend/"},"headline":"More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Body","datePublished":"2016-01-22T16:21:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:21:56.273Z","description":"Scientists don't know why the number of cases is increasing","url":"https://time.com/4190247/babies-organs-gastroschisis-trend/","keywords":["Babies","infants"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt197764c028be960f/69887a2df887dcaeb5e9443e/gastroschisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt197764c028be960f/69887a2df887dcaeb5e9443e/gastroschisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GIFT PROGRAM--03/06/07--RN Janet Downey blocks the light from Amy Joy Jones' eye so she can fall bac","caption":"GIFT PROGRAM--03/06/07--RN Janet Downey blocks the light from Amy Joy Jones' eye so she can fall bac","creditText":"Tara Walton—Toronto Star/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/babies/","name":"Babies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4190247/babies-organs-gastroschisis-trend/","name":"More Babies Are Being Born With Organs Outside Their Body"}}]}] ```