Shivaprasad B¹, Shashikala B Patil²

¹ Senior consultant & Neonatologist, St Martha’s Hospital, Bengaluru,2Assistant Professor, Department of OBG, BGS Global Institute of Medical Sciences, Kengeri, Bengaluru.India.

Address for correspondence: : Dr Shivaprasad B, Senior consultant & Neonatologist, St Martha’s hospital, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

Email: neoprasad @gmail.com

Introduction: : Recent technologic advances have facilitated the fertility of sterile couples. Routine techniques frequently used in India are: in vitrofertilization (IVF), and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The outcome of these pregnancies is controversial, according to numerous reports. Prematurity, low birth weight (LBW) and multifetal pregnancies seem to be more frequent in some studies, but others do not confirm this result thoroughly.

Aims and Objectives: To study the immediate neonatal outcome in infants born after artificial reproduction techniques (ART) when compared to that of infants born after natural conception of similar gestational age.

Material and Methods:It is a prospective cohort study done at Neonatology divison, Dr.Mehta’s children hospital, Chennai for 2 years. Cases (ART conception group) - all infants born after IVF including inborn and infants referred to our hospital. Controls (spontaneous conception group) - infants born after natural conception of similar gestational age and with similar mother’s age including inborn and infants referred to our hospital. Total of 60 cases and 60 controls were studied.

Results: Total number of admissions during 2 years study period were 1652 and among these 60 (3.7%) infants born after ART conception and 1592 (96.3%) were born after spontaneous conception. ART conception group, 18 (30.0%) were term infants and 42 (70.0%) were preterm.

Conclusion: Immediate neonatal outcomes like respiratory morbidities, CNS morbidities, mortality rate and duration of hospital stay in infants of ART group were comparable with infants of spontaneous conception group when gestational age and maternal age were matched. Artificial Reproduction Techniques per se did not influence the mortality of infants.

Keywords :Artificial Reproduction Techniques, mortality, maternal age