Difficulties in adaptation to pregnancy following natural conception or use of assisted reproduction techniques: A comparative study

Abstract

Background To evaluate the influence assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs) may have on women's adaptation to resulting pregnancies.

Methods Retrospective assessment of how women adapt to their pregnancies following ART. A questionnaire was used that ranked their attitudes according to the 5-grade Likert scale. The study included 250 women who gave birth to their first child. Of these pregnancies, 125 had been obtained by means of ART; the remaining 125 were naturally conceived.

Results Difficulties in adaptation to pregnancy were significantly more frequent in women whose pregnancies resulted from the use of ARTs than in those who had conceived naturally (p = 0.000005). The subjects in the first group were significantly older (p = 0.04), more affluent (p = 0.000005) and had more frequently interrupted their professional work than women in the latter group. The two groups did not differ with regard to frequency of hospitalisations.

Conclusions ART significantly increases difficulties in adaptation to resulting pregnancies. The main factors responsible for these difficulties are age, socio-economic conditions and interruption of professional activity.

Key words:

• Pregnancy
• Assisted reproduction
• Adaptation to pregnancy
• In vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer
• Artificial insemination