I unfortunately learned far too much about this lethal malformation when I conceived PBWCLEW.
Anencephaly is a big way of describing a fatal birth defect where the bones of the skull fail to fuse early in a baby’s development.
It is uniformly lethal as the exposed brain is rudimentary, malformed, and further eroded away by amniotic fluid in-utero.
Babies born with anencephaly die either during or shortly after birth.
There is no potential for consciousness to ever be achieved as the cerebral cortex is missing, thus resuscitative measures are not employed.
Women who have had a pregnancy affected by anencephaly are also at risk of having babies with spina bifida and should be on 5mg of folate to reduce the risk of recurrence (of either defect).
Below are some links explaining what anencephaly *is*.
Medical jargon:
http://www.obgyn.net/ultrasound/?page=/us/cotm/0006/Exencephaly-Anencephaly
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic244.htm
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic639.htm
Information from families who continue with a lethal-prognosis pregnancy:
http://www.anencephalie-info.org/e/faq.htm
Information from families who choose NOT to continue with an anencephalic pregnancy:
http://www.aheartbreakingchoice.com/index.html
