Register for Cesareans could make it more difficult to have other children
ObstetricsAugust 1, 2002
2002 AUG 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Women having their babies by cesarean section could find it harder to become pregnant later, a study has found. Researchers in Bristol, England, have discovered that once women have had a cesarean and then try to get pregnant again, the risk of it taking more than a year to conceive another baby increases.
The 7000 women were all part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), popularly known as Children of the 90s, which has monitored the health and development of more than 14,000 families since the early 1990s.
The research from the Bristol University study, published July 2, 2002, in the journal Human Reproduction, found that when women who had previously had a cesarean tried to get pregnant again there was almost double the risk of it taking longer than a year. The risk following cesarean section was 12% compared with 7% for women with no previous cesarean.
The increased risk remained significant even taking into account such important additional factors as the ages of both mother and father, how long they had lived together, oral contraceptive pill use, cigarette exposure, alcohol consumption, educational level and ethnicity.
The rate of cesarean section has risen nationally threefold in the past 25 years without any evidence of improved outcomes for the mother or baby. One in five women having babies in the U.K. is now delivered by cesarean section. Little attention has been paid to whether there is any relationship between cesarean section and subsequent infertility.
"We looked at the delayed ability to conceive of women who did eventually go on to get pregnant," said research scientist Dr. Deirdre Murphy from the obstetrics and gynecology division of the University of Bristol. "This may be underestimating the true magnitude of the association. It is possible that some women will choose not to have a further pregnancy because of the trauma of a section or will fail to achieve any further pregnancy following cesarean section" (Murphy DJ, Stirrat GM, Heron J, et al. The relationship between cesarean section and subfertility in a population-based sample of 14,541 ALSPAC Study Team Hum Reprod, July 2, 2002).
"Further studies in other populations are needed to confirm our finding that cesarean section may have a negative influence on future fertility," she added. "Reliable evidence on long-term consequences of cesarean section is essential, if women are to be offered informed choice with regards to mode of delivery when they have their babies." This article was prepared by Women's Health Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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