Test tube baby clinics in the USA better at avoiding multiple births than before

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 15 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Clinics in the USA that produce test tube babies (in vitro fertilisation) are getting fewer multiple births than they used to. This means the mother has a better chance of giving birth to a healthy baby. This is according to a new study.

A mother's chances of having twins is still high. However, her chances of having triplets or bigger multiple births are much lower now than they used to be.

You can read about this study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to the study, doctors are reducing the risks associated with multiple births. This is likely to be because they are implanting fewer fertilised eggs at each attempt.

The researchers come from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA. The team leader is Tarun Jain.

Tarun Jain told the Reuters news agency "There have been improvements in culture techniques, and that's probably the reason why the pregnancy rate continues to increase while we can now transfer fewer embryos."

A third of all pregnancies in the USA are the result of some form of reproductive technology (where medical practice and technology have given a helping hand in getting the mother pregnant).

The big debate has always been 'how many embryos do you implant into the woman's womb?' If you put lots you improve her chances of getting pregnant, but you also increase the chances she will give birth to lots of babies in one go. If you put in only a few, her chances of not getting pregnant at all increase.

The problem with multiple births is that there is a greater chance the babies will have health serious problems.

There are guidelines which were set out by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. They say that a maximum of three embryos should be transferred to a woman who is aged less than 35 - and if her embryos have not been frozen. As soon as these guidelines were issued the number of multiple births dropped significantly. Jain and his team noticed that multiple birth numbers dropped 11% within a year of the guidelines being set out.

However, the mothers chances of having twins stays at 29% if she has IVF treatment. (IVF - In Vitro Fertilisation).

Spelling: UK - Fertilisation. USA - Fertilization.

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