Interested in home birth, hospital birth or private midwifery care? Questions or comments? Email Melissa Maimann or call 0400 418 448.
Couples who conceive through … IVF or … ICSI had a higher risk of preterm delivery.
… nearly 8 percent were premature and 1.5 percent were very premature …
… roughly 5 percent of babies born to fertile mothers were premature, and 0.6 percent were very pre-term …
… Other forms of fertility treatment … were not related to the risk of preterm delivery.
[The study only looked at singleton babies, so the findings could not be explained by a higher proportion of twins] … the findings suggest that something about the IVF and ICSI procedures themselves might raise the odds of preterm birth.
… The fact that other forms of fertility treatment were not linked to preterm delivery suggests that infertility itself is not to blame …
… Another possibility … has to do with the “vanishing twin” phenomenon … these surviving fetuses are at increased risk of preterm delivery and low birth weight …
Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448