A study published Thursday 25 May) in Human Reproduction[1] concluded that there was a six-fold higher risk of the condition in single-baby pregnancies conceived through ART compared with natural conception and a three-fold higher risk among mothers who had conceived both naturally and through ART.
"What this means in absolute terms is that after adjusting for factors such as maternal age, which tends to be higher in ART pregnancies, the risk of placenta praevia rose from about three in 1,000 births to 16 in 1,000 births for ART pregnancies compared with the general population, and from about seven in 1,000 births to 20 in 1,000 births for those who had both assisted and natural conceptions," said lead author Dr Liv Bente Romundstad, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Olavs University Hospital in Trondheim.
Placenta praevia, where the placenta attaches itself to lowest segment of the uterine wall and either blocks or partially blocks the cervix, is associated with serious and potentially life-threatening problems for mother and baby. These include haemorrhage in the mother, either in before or after the birth, and the need for caesarean section in the case of total placenta praevia. For the baby the risks include prematurity and perinatal problems.
Some small studies have suggested in the past that placenta praevia is more common after ART, but the authors believe that the new research looking at over 845,300 pregnancies in the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry between 1988 and 2002 is the most extensive in the world to examine links between placenta praevia and ART. Furthermore, it is the first to indicate that
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Contact: Margaret Willson
m.willson@mwcommunications.org.uk
44-153-677-2181
European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology
24-May-2006