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There is no known cause of LBWC. There are a number of theories regarding what causes it, the most popular being:  .

Here are a series of illustrations that explain how an embryo begins to form:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HumanEmbryogenesis.svg

The illustration on Day 19 will help explain the amnion rupture in simple terms.

The amniotic sac is comprised of the chorion and the amnion. The chorion is the outer membrane if the amniotic sac and the amnion the inner.  The chorion is part of the placenta and the amnion is what holds all of the amniotic fluid, as well as the fetus.

The amnion rupture theory claims that in a very early stage of  embryonic development, the amnion surrounding your baby ruptured, and stringy, sticky, fibrous bands of amnion became “entangled” with the forming embryo, and caused a disruption in how the embryo was composing itself. 

 In the beginning, your baby was a zygote. The zygote is formed when an egg is fertilized. After 5 days, the human zygote turns into a blastocyst.

The blastocyst consists of two cell types; the inner cells- which will form the fetus, and the outer cells- which will form the placenta.

The blastocyst stage is the stage at which your baby will implant itself into the endometrium (lining of the uterus). When that implantation happens, hormones are secreted to signal your body that you are pregnant.

The second week after conception, the blastocyst will separate into three layers. The outer layer, or ectoderm, which will later form the skin, hair, sweat glands, tooth enamel, salivary glands, and all the nervous tissue, including the brain. The middle layer, or mesoderm, which will form the muscles, bones, blood, circulatory system, teeth, connective tissues and kidneys. And the inner layer, the endoderm, which will form most of the internal organs (stomach, intestines, liver, lungs, heart, and so on). This is called the germ disc.

When this portion of embryonic formation is disrupted- (for whatever reasons), the capacity for multiple, massive deformities of the fetus are inevitable. 

This means that when your baby was still an embryo, he/she had a "stroke", which impaired vascular function to one side of the forming fetus. This in turn caused malformations due to inadequate blood flow to extremities and internal organs. 

Teratogenic means environmental- some substance, of natural or chemical origin, that you may have come into contact with during your pregnancy.

There have been research studies done which suggest a connection with anti-convulsents and LBWC (4) and Cocaine use and LBWC (5)