Fathers' age, lifestyle associated with birth defects
A growing body of research is revealing associations between birth defects and a father's age, alcohol use and environmental factors, say researchers. They say these defects result from epigenetic alterations that can potentially affect multiple generations. Ref. Source 5j.
Oh, so they're going to blame it on the father now? I'm sure a part of that can come from the mother too since once the sperm is in the egg its mom that feeds all the nutrients to the baby. If mom isn't doing what she's supposed to then something can go wrong on that end too.
New insights into leading cause of miscarriage, birth defects discovered. Ten to 25 percent of human embryos contain the wrong number of chromosomes, resulting in miscarriage or birth defects such as Down syndrome. The incidence of these errors rises dramatically as women age. Two recent studies shed new light on the mystery of the leading cause of birth defects and miscarriage, laying the foundation for further research in an understudied but crucially important field of genetic study. Source 4k.