Gregg1 in 1941 was the first to suggest a relationship between maternal rubella and congenital defects in the child. He studied 78 cases of congenital cataract associated with cardiac or other lesions and in 68 obtained a maternal history of rubella during pregnancy. Since this initial work in Australia, many reports have appeared on this subject. Various congenital defects, particularly cataracts, cardiac malformations and deafness have been reported. Mental retardation, hypospadias, talipes equinovarus, underdevelopment, difficult feeding problems and dental abnormalities also have been mentioned.
Further studies disclosed that rubella in the mother during the first trimester of pregnancy is most likely to affect the child. Swan,2 Evans3 and their Australian colleagues followed Gregg's lead and concluded that congenital defects resulted in 100 per cent of babies born to mothers having rubella in the first two months of pregnancy and 50 per cent of children born to women