Maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with infertility

Area of Science:

• Reproductive Medicine
• Obstetrics
• Perinatal Outcomes

Background:

• Infertility affects a significant portion of women seeking pregnancy.
• Understanding perinatal outcomes in infertile populations is crucial for optimizing maternal and infant health.
• Nulliparous women represent a key demographic for studying first-birth outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare perinatal outcomes between fertile and infertile nulliparous women.
• To identify specific risks associated with infertility in pregnancy.
• To investigate the influence of maternal age on delivery mode and gestational age.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective cohort study design.
• Inclusion of all nulliparous women delivering singletons at ≥24 weeks gestation.
• Classification of women into fertile and infertile groups based on chart review.

Main Results:

• Infertile women were older and had a higher rate of cesarean delivery in bivariate analysis.
• After adjusting for maternal age, infertility was not significantly associated with cesarean delivery.
• Infertility remained associated with earlier gestational age at delivery, with a higher incidence of late preterm births.
• No significant difference in infant birth weight was observed between groups.

Conclusions:

• The increased risk of cesarean delivery in infertile women is primarily attributed to advanced maternal age.
• Infertility is associated with an increased risk of delivering infants at an earlier gestational age, including late preterm births.
• Late preterm infants born to infertile mothers warrant further investigation for specific perinatal care needs.