Background: Widespread use of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) has raised major concern about the outcome of resulting pregnancies, as well as about the health of the newborn children. The ART conceived pregnancies have an increased risk for prematurity and low birth weight (LBW). The risk of congenital malformations among children conceived via ART is contemplated to be high. The present case control study was conducted with an aim of analysing perinatal outcomes of children born by ART in the Indian context.
Methods: The case control study was conducted in the Army Hospital (Research and Referral), New Delhi. It included 82 cases and 164 controls. The data was collected on maternal and newborn characteristics among cases and controls. Perinatal outcomes were compared between ART conceived and spontaneously pregnant women in terms of birth weight, preterm, multiple pregnancies, and neonatal complications.
Results: Significant difference was observed in terms of the preterm delivery, birth weight, neonatal complications between the cases and the controls. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) was 21.6 (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.3, 112.9) for preterm delivery; 6.0 (95% CI 1.1, 43.8) for multiple pregnancy and 3.2 (95% CI 1.5, 7.0) for caesarean section. The risk of LBW and neonatal complications was heavily confounded by preterm delivery and multiple pregnancies, the adjusted OR being 0.9 and 1.0, respectively.
Conclusion: Increased risk of preterm delivery, multiple pregnancies and caesarean section was associated with ART. The LBW was confounded by preterm delivery and multiple pregnancies.
Keywords: assisted reproductive techniques; odds ratio; perinatal outcomes.