Journal of Pregnancy 68.4 24.4 7.2 62.9 22.1 14.9 92.0 8.0 60.9 34.6 4.5 38.3 61.7 72.9 28.6 9.7 67.9 26.1 18.4 94.5 10.7 65.7 39.3 6.5 43.5 66.4 63.7 20.4 4.7 58.0 17.9 11.7 89.3 5.2 56.2 29.6 2.7 33.6 56.5 (95% CI) (27.34–28.41) (33.04–34.17) Table 1: Basic characteristics of study subjects. Group I Number n = 201 Percent 95% CI Lower Upper Group II n = 402 Number Percent 95% CI Lower Upper Primary/secondary High school University Primary/secondary High school University Housewife Employed Less than 400 400–800 More than 800 Familial Nonfamilial 120 60 21 134 42 25 181 20 129 56 16 56 145 Mean 29.14 33.47 59.7 29.9 10.4 66.7 20.9 12.4 90.0 10.0 64.2 27.9 7.9 27.9 72.1 52.7 23.9 6.5 60.7 14.9 8.0 86.1 6.0 57.7 21.4 4.5 21.9 66.2 66.7 36.3 14.9 73.6 26.9 17.4 94.0 13.9 70.1 34.3 11.9 33.8 78.1 (95% CI) (28.24–29.97) (32.51–34.42) 275 98 29 253 89 60 370 32 245 139 18 154 248 Mean 27.87 33.61 2 Mother literacy Father literacy Mother job Type of marriage Mother age Father age Family income (per month, US $) for maternal care in the country. It is usually performed 3-4 times during pregnancy period beginning from early weeks and then in the 12th, 22nd, and 32nd weeks of pregnancy. It is recommended to do one of the ultrasound examinations between 14th and 16th weeks for birth defect(s) diagnosis. The same routine care are given after birth for infants by neonatologist or pediatrician—both at birth and at hospital discharge—for possible intervention and treatment. The examinations include assessment of maternal health status, maturity, and congenital anomalies of fetus/infant during pregnancy and after birth. We studied 603 women with a pregnancy complicated by a birth defect in the population under the TRoCA programme. They were identiﬁed by med- ical diagnostic tests during the antenatal period as having a fetus with birth defect(s). Pregnant mothers were then referred to three specialist physicians for ﬁnal conﬁrmation of congenital anomalies. Of them, 201 mothers were legally allowed to proceed to abortion (Group I), and the remaining 402 subjects were unable to obtain permission for abortion (Group II). The deﬁnition of the congenital anomalies for the purposes of this study is based on the standard coding system of the International Classiﬁcation of Diseases (ICD) and British Paediatric Association (BPA). Thus, the study subjects comprised all pregnant women who were diagnosed/recommended for the termination of pregnancy as having a fetus with some types of birth defect(s) with a primary diagnosis under one of the anomalies headings. After obtaining an informed consent from the partic- ipants, an expert physician performed the clinical exami- nations and took the medical history of the subjects. All mothers were also asked to complete a brief questionnaire for demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status. Approval for this study was obtained from Regional Committee of Medical Ethics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Descriptive statistics (including proportions, means, and standard deviations) and 95% conﬁdence intervals were used for statistical analysis of data. 3. Results There were a total of 22524 births (22320 live and 204 stillbirths) in the area in 2010. Of those, 639 pregnancies (2.8 percent, CI95%: 2.6–3.0) were identiﬁed as having a fetus with birth defect(s). Demographic characteristics of the study subjects are shown in Table 1. The mean age of mothers was 28.3 years (range: 14–44 years). Thirty-ﬁve percent of subjects had consanguineous marriage. Eighty cases had a history of anomaly in previous pregnancies, 65 had the same anomaly in father’s family compared to the 42 cases with the similar anomaly in mother’s family. Most women (87.2 percent) had at least one ultrasound examination. The proportions of other screening tests including amniocentesis and genetic tests were 2.8 and 4.6 percent, respectively. Of 603 women diagnosed as having a baby with birth defect, 201 terminated the pregnancy giving a prevalence rate of 33.3 percent (CI95%: 29.6–37.6). Forty-eight percent of termination of pregnancies was performed before the 18th week of pregnancy. Neural tube defects, limb deformation, hydrops fetalis, hydrocephaly, and chromosomal anomalies including Down syndrome accounted proportionally for about 65 percent of defects eligible for abortion in the region (Table 2). 4. Discussion This study was carried out to produce the epidemiological proﬁle of induced abortions for birth defects in Iran. The prevalence of pregnancies complicated by congenital anoma- lies was estimated 2.8 percent of total births in the region.