WEDNESDAY, February 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) – In a finding that should reassure women with multiple sclerosis (MS) planning to have a baby, new research suggests the disease does not increase the risk of pregnancy complications.
“Women with multiple sclerosis are understandably concerned about the risks of pregnancy,” said study author Dr. Melinda Magyari from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
“While previous research has shown that there is no higher risk of birth defects in babies born to women with MS, there are still many unknowns about pregnancy and MS,” Magyari said. “We wanted to find out if women with MS were at risk for a variety of pregnancy complications. We found that their overall pregnancies were as healthy as those of the mothers without MS.”
In the study, researchers compared nearly 3,000 pregnant women with MS with nearly 57,000 pregnant women without an autoimmune disease. All women were born between 1997 and 2016.
There was no difference between the two groups in terms of the risk of multiple pregnancy complications: preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, placental complications, emergency caesarean section, instrumental delivery, stillbirth, premature birth, congenital malformations, or a low Apgar score.
An Apgar score is a measure of a newborn’s health – including heart rate, reflexes, and muscle tone – taken immediately after birth.
The study found that the rate of elective caesarean sections was higher in women with MS (14%) than in women without MS (8%). Adjusted for other factors – such as a previous caesarean section or mother’s age – the researchers concluded that women with MS were 89% more likely to have an elective caesarean section.
Other findings were that women with MS were 15% more likely to have induced childbirth than women without MS, and that women with MS were 29% more likely to have babies that were small for their gestational age (3.4% versus 2.8%). . The study was published in the online February 3 edition of the journal NeurologyClinical Practice.
“We believe the reason more women with MS are having babies through elective caesarean section or induced delivery may be related to MS-related symptoms such as muscle weakness, spasticity, or fatigue that could affect the birth,” Magyari said in a press release in a Journal. “All of these could make a mother more tired and result in complications during delivery that could cause the clinician and woman to take extra precautions.”
More information
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is more concerned with MS and pregnancy.
SOURCE: NeurologyClinical Practice, press release, February 3, 2021
Comments are closed.