Women who conceived with infertility treatment were more likely to receive planned cesarean deliveries in Taiwan

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of conception with infertility treatment on planned cesarean delivery. The participants were from a panel of primiparous pregnant women in northern Taiwan. The data analysis included 771 women with a singleton pregnancy, of whom 160 had a planned cesarean delivery and 611 who had a vaginal delivery. The study women answered structured questionnaires during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, and at one-month postpartum. Women who conceived with infertility treatment were more likely to have planned cesarean deliveries than women who conceived without it (44.7% versus 18.1%, p < 0.001; crude odds ratio: 3.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.24–5.98). After adjustment for maternal age over 35 years, whether they were currently unmarried, selection of time for birth in advance, gestational hypertension, and birthweight < 2500 g, women who conceived with infertility treatment were 2.95 times (95% CI: 1.47–5.92) more likely to have planned cesarean deliveries. The increased risk for planned cesarean deliveries among singleton women who conceived with infertility treatment cannot be explained by older maternal age or higher number of morbidities during pregnancy. Counseling for women who conceive with infertility treatments may be needed to decrease unnecessary cesarean deliveries.

Keywords::

• cesarean delivery
• infertility
• Taiwan
• panel study

Acknowledgement

The authors thank KH Chu, S Yeh, P Chen, and AC Chen for their assistance with data collection.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This study was funded by the National Science Council, Taiwan (grant no NSC 98-2314-B-010-029-MY3).