We read with great interest the article by Ozkan et al. [Citation1] reporting that there are no impact of grandmultiparity on adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, some important data such as their first pregnancy outcomes are missing.
In 2012, we examined the pregnancy outcomes of 41 Japanese women with prior 5 deliveries at gestation ≥22 weeks compared with those of 82 age-matched Japanese women with parity 2 [Citation2]. As shown in , we did not observe an increased incidence of perinatal complications in these grandmultiparous women. As shown in , the perinatal outcomes of their first pregnancies were better than those of age-matched primiparous women. In 2012, Japanese total fertility rate is 1.4 (cf. 2.1 in Turkey). Pregnancy outcomes of first pregnancy may be important for planning of next pregnancy. If the first pregnancy outcomes are not good, Japanese women usually do not get pregnant several times; therefore, we believe that the grandmultiparity does not contribute to the adverse pregnancy outcomes in Japan.
Table 1. Pregnancy outcomes of Japanese women who prior 5 deliveries compared with those of age-matched Japanese women with parity 2.
Table 2. First pregnancy outcomes of Japanese women with parity 5 compared with those of age-matched primiparous women.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article
References
- Ozkan ZS, Atilgan R, Goktolga G, et al. Impact of grandmultiparity on perinatal outcomes in eastern region of Turkey. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2013 [in press]
- Suzuki S, Tamura T, Fuse Y, Konishi M. Is grandmultiparity high risk? (in Japanese). Perinat Med (Tokyo) 2012;43:266–9