Having multiple congenital heart defects does not necessarily mean that these birth defects of the heart are life threatening. A baby can be born with an atrial septal defect (ASD) and a ventricular septal defect (VSD) of the heart and not have problems.
 Atrial septal Defect (ASD) and Ventricular Septal defects (VSD) are holes in the wall of the heart and in some cases close on their own in time with no surgical intervention or operation needed to correct them.
 Both ASD and VSD are usually discovered when a doctor listens to a child's heart with a stethescope and an echocardiogram. The sound of the heart usually tells the doctor if the heart is pumping blood correctly. 
There are many sounds that a doctor listens for with a stethescope such as a back flow of blood into different chambers of the heart. It is similar to when you whistle.
 When you whistle you make a round shape with your lips and blow air out between your lips and you hear one sound and when you whistle by sucking in you hear another sound. This is what a doctor listens for and it is usually a sound of the back flow of blood, or a sloshing of blood or an abnormal beating or rhythm of the heart.
 The doctor will also listen for the normal sounds the heart makes such as lub-dub-lub-dub which is the closing and opening of heart muscle as it pushes blood through the different parts of the heart. The doctor will listen for the number of times the heart beats and listen to hear if this beating of the heart has a constant rhythm to it.
If there is an interruption or pause between each beat or after each beat of the heart this may tell the doctor there is something wrong with the heart because it is not normal in most cases for the heart to not have a constant rhythm or beat to it.

The normal heart is made up of four chambers. Two upper chambers called the right and left atriums and two lower chambers called the right and left ventricles. If you have an atrial septal defect (ASD) you have a defect in the upper chamber of the heart and if you have a ventricular septal defect (VSD) you have defect in the lower chamber of the heart.
The two upper chambers the right and left atrium of the heart are like a reservoir that collect the blood as it flows back to the heart. A reservoir is a place like your bath tub that holds water till you empty it into a lower place down the drain.
From these upper chambers of the heart called the right and left atriums the blood flows into the two lower parts of the heart chambers called the right and left ventricles. The right and left ventricles which pump blood (lub-dub sound of the heart) with each heart beat into the main two arteries the pulmonary artery and the aorta.
The pumping of blood on the right side of the heart is done by the pulmonary artery which takes the blood for circulation through the lungs. The pumping of blood on the left side of the heart is done by the other main artery the aorta. The aorta carries blood to the rest of the body.
The right and left ventricles and the right and left atrium of the heart are separated by partitions called septums. (Think of a partition like the walls in a house separating two rooms.) The partition between the right atrium and the left atrium are called ATRIAL SEPTUM (AS). The partition between the right and left ventricles are called VENTRICULAR SEPTUM (VS).
Blood flows in two directions. Away from the heart and back to the heart. Blood is carried away from the heart by arteries and back to the heart by veins. This is how the blood circulates throughout the body and is called blood circulation or the circulatory system of blood.
The blood is also described as being blue blood or red blood. Blue blood is not oxygenated and red blood is oxygenated. Its almost like saying when ever we breathe in, we help turn blue blood into red blood, and when we breathe out we turn red blood into blue blood. So we need to keep this cycle going of breathing in and breathing out.
The dark (blue) blood returning to the right atrium from the body and its organs is through the two large main veins called the SUPERIOR VENA CAVA (SVA) and the INFERIOR VENA CAVA (IVA) and is pumped by the right ventricle to the lungs for oxygen replenishment.
The dark blue blood now becomes a bright red blood in the lungs because the oxygen has been replaced or put back in by the lungs. The red blood returns through the two main veins from each lung to the left atrium (upper chamber) and then is pumped by the left ventricle (lower chamber) back to the body again. This process continues for as long as the heart and the body continue to function.
 When we breathe in, we breathe in air that is an invisible gas called oxygen. This oxygen we breathe in goes in our body starting at the opening in our nose or mouth, down our trachea and into the lungs.
 The lungs are where the blood that is continually circulating throughout the body picks up the oxygen we breathe and circulates this re-oxygenated blood over and over throughout the body to keep all of the organs working the way they are suppose to.
Every time we breathe in oxygen goes into our lungs. This oxygen is picked up by the blood, and the blood continues transporting oxygenated blood throughout the body over and over till the heart stops working or we stop breathing. 
There are four heart valves that control the blood flow or circulation throughout the heart. The four heart valves are the aortic valve, the mitral valve, the pulmonary valve and the tricuspid valve. The four valves all have two or three flaps that swing open to allow the blood to flow through each time the heart beats and then these flaps swing back together to stop or prevent the blood flow from going in a backward or wrong direction. We don't want blood to back flow.
The tricuspid valve and the mitral valve are situated at the junction of the upper heart chambers, the right and left atriums with the lower heart chambers the right and left ventricles at the origin of the major arteries from the ventricles, the pulmonary valve and the aortic valve.
Just a brief note: The tricuspid valve and the mitral valve are called the Atrio-ventricular Valves, and the Pulmonary valve and the Aortic valve are called Arterial Valves.