{"id":306277,"date":"2024-02-06T06:44:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T12:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=306277"},"modified":"2024-02-08T06:09:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T12:09:31","slug":"premature-birth-rate-rising-ivf-factor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-birth-rate-rising-ivf-factor\/","title":{"rendered":"The premature birth rate is rising. Could IVF be a contributing factor?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new analysis has found that the rate of babies born prematurely in the United States is growing. While there are undoubtedly numerous factors at play, it raises the question: could the rise in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) like in-vitro fertilization (IVF) be a contributing factor?<\/p>\n

The Guardian reported<\/a> that the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released a new analysis, which found that premature births grew 12% between 2014 and 2022, to a rate of 8.7%. Some of the reasons can be clearly determined; Black women, for example, have stark contrasts in the quality of maternity care they receive \u2014 meaning that because they are more likely to receive low-quality maternity care, they are also more likely to experience premature births.<\/p>\n

However, the rise in premature births is not just race-related.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s important here is, with all of the research we\u2019ve done to try to decrease preterm birth, we still have not found the solution,\u201d Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and president-elect of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, told the Guardian. \u201cIt\u2019s because we actually don\u2019t know what instigates preterm birth in many cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

IVF has been growing increasingly common<\/a> in recent years. According to one estimate<\/a>, the number of babies born via IVF increases 6.7% each year worldwide. In Australia, 1 in every 18<\/a> babies is born through IVF.<\/p>\n