Hip dysplasia

On Monday I took Eleanor to the pediatrician for her one month checkup, and the doctor heard a "click" in her hip. As I have learned since then, that's a sign that Eleanor might have hip dysplasia. It's the most common congenital defect, and the possible long term effects (if it goes untreated) are walking with a limp, hip pain, and early hip arthritis. If it's caught very early in infants it can be fixed simply by having the baby wear a harness - if it was caught later you'd have to do surgery to fix it. Eleanor is having an ultrasound on Friday to check for it (x-rays apparently don't work on babies this young), but I'm not too worried. First of all, it's definitely possible that she doesn't have it. But if she does, I'm just thankful that we caught it early. We'll just see what happens.

A few things stood out to me as I read about the condition though. First of all, this condition is most common in first born girls. Is Eleanor a "first born girl"? Not in my opinion, but she was the first full size baby I gave birth to. Also, about one half of one percent of babies have this condition. About one half of one percent of pregnancies end in stillbirth. Why do these statistics not seem to work in my favor?