Outcome of pregnancies resulting from assisted conception

With the increasing practice of assisted conception, the health of the resulting children is becoming an increasingly important issue. Experience with four thousand children conceived by IVF or GIFT indicates that multiple pregnancy, which frequently results from assisted conception, is the main determinant of complications during pregnancy and of the health of the children at the time of birth. Overall malformation rates are similar to those in the country as a whole. There are, however, still insufficient numbers of children studied to draw firm conclusions about the risk of specific types of malformations. This will require the continued monitoring of children resulting from assisted conception, and the continued co-operation of many individuals and centres practising assisted conception.