Reliability of maternal reporting in identifying major congenital malformations

We compared maternal reports of major congenital malformations with physicians' reports in a teratology counseling service. The reports of women followed during gestation were matched to those submitted by physicians caring for the infants. In 153/165 cases neither the mother nor the physician described major malformations. There were 12 cases where both mother and physician described similar major malformations. In several of them the mother used non-medical terms (eg "hole in the heart"). Maternal reports of major anomalies were in close agreement with physicians' reports. This lends credibility to research based on pregnancy follow-up with maternal reports that are corroborated by physicians' reports.