A recent CNN report Saturday revealed an unusually high number of babies born with the birth defect anencephaly in a three-county area in the state of Washington.

According to the article, between January 2010 and January 2013, Department of Health epidemiologists found 23 reported cases of anencephaly in those areas, which means for every 10,000 live births there were roughly eight cases.

Anencephaly is a life-ending birth defect where parts of the infant's brain and skull are missing. The stunning amount of those cases reported is four times higher than the national average, which is about 2 cases per 10,000 lives.

Andrea Jackman, a Yakima Valley resident, gave birth in September to her daughter Olivia, who was born with spina bifida, a neural tube defect similar to anencephaly but not typically fatal.

Sara Barron, a 30-year career nurse from Washington, was the person who noticed the cluster of defects and brought it to the department's attention.

Barron said, "I think it's very scary. I think there's absolutely something going on that needs to be investigated more thoroughly. I wish they would take it more seriously.

The Department of Health said since the discovery of the clustered reports, it has been investigating cases of both anencephaly and spina bifida.

However, Jackman told CNN she is deeply upset with department who has not reached out to her or any of the other mothers who have gone through the tragic event of losing their child to the defect.

"What are you researching if you haven't physically called the families to find out?" Jackman asked.

Washington's state epidemiologist Mandy Stahre said the she and the state have been investigating the incidents by examining the mothers' home and living conditions through their medical records.

"Medical records give us a lot of information about all of the known risk factors," Stahre told CNN.

She said the addresses tell the epidemiologists about the mother's water source, agricultural area and if any folic acids, which can prevent neural tube defects, were taken during the pregnancy.

However, up till now, the medical records haven't revealed anything linking the affected families to each other.

Dr. Beate Ritz, vice chair of the epidemiology department for UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, said examining medical records are unreliable and a bad research method because not all doctors ask or report the same information.

She said the mothers' medical records lack sufficient information regarding their diets during pregnancy or even exposure to toxins in the environment.

The main problem, Ritz said, is that conducting research the right way for these cases can cost thousands, maybe millions of dollars that state departments don't have.

According to the CNN report, to see if the cluster of neural tube defect cases continued, Washington's Department of Health will begin investigating those reports from 2013 and may get in touch with the mothers affected.