IVF babies at increased risk of death at birth, study finds
(cz) Babies conceived through IVF are much more likely to die at birth than those conceived naturally, the results of a new study show.
IVF children are also at an increased risk of being born prematurely and of weighing less at birth, scientists found.
Researchers looked at more than 2,500 women who had conceived both naturally and through IVF and compared the results to more than one million natural conceptions.
They found that babies who had been conceived through IVF were 31 per cent more likely to die in the period before and after their birth.
IVF conceived children also tended to weigh an average of 0.9 ounces (25g) less at birth, the findings, published online in the Lancet medical journal show.
The babies also tended to be born earlier, by an average of two days, and were 26 per cent more likely to be small for their age.
Dr Liv Bente Romundstad, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who led the study, believes that the high death rate among IVF babies could be linked to the underlying reasons why their mother sought infertility treatment in the first place.
Her results also show that among women who conceived with fertility treatment but also had another child naturally, the spontaneously conceived baby was three times more likely to die than its IVF sibling. more…
From: »The Daily Telegraph«