Abstract
Objective
To assess the contribution of ART twins to the very preterm birth rate in Slovenia.
Study design
In this retrospective population-based study we stratified by plurality and gestational
age (<32 weeks vs >32 week) all deliveries >24 weeks in women who conceived by ART.
We counted the frequencies of all ART liveborn twins among all liveborn infants and
among all liveborn twins and frequencies in the subgroup of very preterm births.
Results
During the period 1987–2010, there were 13,293 twins (2.73%, range 1.93–3.62%, a nearly
2-fold increase from 1987 to 2010), 6939 infants born after ART (1.42%, range 0.03–2.62%,
an 87-fold increase from 1987 to 2010), including 2317 (33.4%, range 14.28–44.83%,
a 3-fold increase from 1987 to 2010) twins (0.47% of all deliveries). A total of 425
twin infants (0.99%, range: 1.07–1.2%, insignificant increase) were born at <32 weeks’
gestation, including 261 after ART (61.4%, range 20–100%, 5-fold increase). Twins
after ART born at <32 weeks comprised 0.05% of all births (range 0.004–0.11%) and
increased 27-fold from 1987 to 2010.
Conclusions
The incidence of twins after ART born at <32 weeks increased 27-fold from 1987 to
2010 and has not reduced from its peak incidence over the last decade.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive BiologyAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in Canada: 2006 results from the Canadian ART Register.Fertil Steril. 2010; 93: 2189-2201
- Neonatal outcome in a Danish national cohort of 8602 children born after in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection: the role of twin pregnancy.Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2004; 83: 1071-1078
- Infertility, assisted reproductive technology, and adverse pregnancy outcomes: executive summary of a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop.Obstet Gynecol. 2007; 109: 967-977
- The decreased rates of triplet births: temporal trends and biologic speculations.Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2005; 193: 327-331
- Perinatal outcome of singletons and twins after assisted conception: a systematic review of controlled studies.Br Med J. 2004; 31: 261-265
- The relative myth of single embryo transfer.Hum Reprod. 2006; 21: 1337-1344
- Births final data for 2008. National vital statistics reports. vol. 59, no. 1. National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD2010 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_01.pdf (accessed March 3, 2012))
- Iatrogenic multiple pregnancy.Semin Neonatol. 2002; 7: 169-176
- Does the risk of cerebral palsy increase or decrease with increasing gestational age.BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2003; 3: 8-16
- Cerebral palsy: effect of twinning, birth weight, and gestational age.Arch Dis Child. 1996; 75: F178-F182
- The cost of prematurity: a case-control study of twins vs singletons.Am J Public Health. 1996; 86: 809-814
- The cost of preterm birth throughout childhood in England and Wales.Pediatrics. 2009; 123: 312-327
- Do multiple gestations raise the risk of cerebral palsy.Clin Perinatol. 2004; 31: 395-408
Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 16, 2013
Accepted:
September 30,
2013
Received in revised form:
September 28,
2013
Received:
March 23,
2013
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
