Association between infertility treatment and perinatal outcomes and infant health and development in a national UK survey

Summary

Relatively little is known about the long-term consequences of fertility treatments for both the mother and child. A postal survey of all women who reported making use of fertility treatment in the first sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) (about 460 out of 18,545 women) was conducted to gather detailed information on women's experiences with infertility treatment within the context of a national cohort study. This gathered information on women's experiences of fertility treatment and included questions about health service utilisation and costs. Data from the MCS interview and the postal questionnaire have been used to describe the socio-demographic and perinatal characteristics of women having successful infertility treatment, to assess the health and development outcomes for children born from infertility treatment, and to describe the process of having fertility treatment in terms of GP management, women's experiences and costs. The questionnaire and data may be accessed - for details see the MCS sub-studies listed on the MCS website at http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/Default.aspx

Publications

Journal Articles

• Redshaw M, Hockley C, Davidson LL. A qualitative study of the experience of treatment for infertility among women who successfully became pregnant. Hum Reprod. 2007;22(1):295-304.

Reports

• Quigley M, Denton J. Guidance for health professionals on feeding twins, triplets and higher order multiples. London: The Multiple Births Foundation. 2011.