Perinatal health features of children born with the help of reproductive technologies

Objective. To assess the health indicators of infants born as a result of natural conception and those born using assisted reproductive technology – in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Materials and methods. Birth and development histories of 25 premature babies have been studied. All of them had been conceived with IVF and were in therapy in the Department of Pathology of newborns and premature infants of Children's Clinical Hospital №13, Perm. In a “case–control” study 2 groups of children were studied, group 1 consisted of babies born through IVF; group 2 – children born as a result of pregnancy that occurred naturally, then the health of these groups was investigated (according to certain data), next the results of the investigation were compared between the two groups. In both groups, obstetric and gynecological history data, Apgar scale indicators were studied, newborns’ body weight, cerebral ischemia were assessed, and biochemical parameters such as total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase were analyzed. The absolute values are calculated in the form of the arithmetic mean (M) and the standard deviation (SD). Statistical processing was carried out with StatSoft Statistica 12.6 software, using the nonparametric Mann – Whitney U-test as the data distribution differs from the normal one. Statistically significant differences were considered at p < 0.05.

Results. It was determined that the proportion of infants with very low body weight (BMI) was higher in the IVF group – 24.0 % (6 children) compared to the control group, where the number of those was 5.0 % (1 child), but these differences did not reach the level of statistical significance (p>0.05). Apgar score on the 5^th minute of life, as well as at birth, in the group of newborns conceived with IVF, was validly higher – 8.24 ± 0.09 points opposite to 8.10 ± 0.12 points in children born as a result of natural pregnancy (p<0.05). The analysis of frequency of pathological conditions in newborns showed that there were no significant differences between the groups (p>0.05).

Conclusions. Children conceived through assisted reproductive technology IVF are more likely to be born with very low body weight than babies conceived naturally. Anthropometric characteristics and Apgar score do not differ from those of children born as a result of natural conception. In the newborn period, they have more pronounced cholestasis syndromes, however both groups are comparable in terms of the incidence of the main newborn pathologies. Thus, it cannot be stated that children conceived through IVF are much inferior in health criteria to those infants who were conceived and born naturally.