Our data on births and congenital heart defects from 2000 to 2006 were obtained from the National Birth and Birth Defect Registry which operated by the Department of Mother and Child Heal thin the Public Health Service of the Israeli Ministry of Health. It receives reports of all cases of congenital malformation from hospitals in Israel. Physicians in all hospital complete a standard form and indicate the type of malformation from an official obligatory list of congenital malforma - tions that should be reported by law. Diagnosis of cases may occur at several stages: during pregnancy through ultra sound screening, at the first routine physical