Surrogate mothers suffer from complications more often than other pregnant women – study

Surrogate mothers have a higher risk of complications than other pregnant women

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Scientists believe that surrogate mothers have a higher risk of complications compared to women who conceived naturally or with help in vitro fertilization.

In addition, they more often suffer from heavy postpartum bleeding, severe preeclampsia (a condition characterized by increased blood pressure and often a significant amount of protein in the urine – ed.) and more often give birth prematurely.

These are the conclusions of the authors of the study, the results of which published in the scientific journal Annals of Internal Medicine, writes The Guardian.

In its course, scientists analyzed the Canadian database Better Outcomes Registry & Network (Born). In particular, more than 860,000 births, which were accepted from 2012 to 2021.

Among them:

• more than 846 thousand children were conceived naturally;
• more than 16 thousand – with the help of artificial insemination;
• 806 babies were born to surrogate mothers.

The team of scientists found that the frequency of serious complications for the health of the woman in labor was:

• 7.8% among surrogate mothers;
• 2.3% – among women who conceived a child independently;
• 4.3% – among women who gave birth with the help of IVF.

In addition, scientists took into account such data as age, income level, number of previous births, obesity, smoking and high blood pressure.

They found that the risk of severe postpartum hemorrhage was 2.9 times higher for surrogate mothers compared to women who conceived unassisted. In addition, the risk premature births (up to 37 weeks) they had almost twice as much.

“There may be other mechanisms, particularly immunological, that may be involved in this increased risk,” – noted Maria Veles, the first author of the study from McGill University in Canada.

Jackie Leach Scully, a professor of bioethics at the University of New South Wales in Australia, says the study highlights how relatively little is actually known about the specific risks to a surrogate mother or the child she carries.

“It raises some ethical questions, primarily about the potential exploitation of women who appear in such a role and are actually at risk because of someone else.” – said the scientist.

Experts emphasize that it is necessary to improve prenatal care for surrogate mothers, as well as to create strict requirements and rules for those women who want to bear a child for another couple.

We used to toldhow pregnancy affects the work of a woman’s brain.