Problem
Juan and his wife Maria were migrant workers on a vegetable farm before Maria became pregnant with their first baby. When the baby was born, the baby had a life-threatening birth defect. The labor and delivery nurse remembered a similar birth a few months before. She wondered if there were any others. She contacted her friend who worked in the public health department on the healthy mothers and babies program. After a search they discovered that four other babies, all born to immigrant mothers in the county, also had been born with similar birth defects.
Answer the following questions:
a) What is the nurse's first step?
b) What might be an underlying cause of the birth defects?
c) What agencies might be able to assist and/or should be notified?