Women Who Suffer Severe Complications During First Pregnancy May Have Fewer Children: Study Finds - Video

Women who suffer severe complications during their first pregnancy or delivery are less inclined to have more babies, a study published in JAMA by researchers at Karolinska Institute reports.

In this new population-based study, the researchers have studied the association between severe maternal morbidity in first-time mothers and the likelihood of their having a second baby. The study comprised over a million women in Sweden who had their first baby between 1999 and 2021.

“We found that the likelihood of having more children was much lower in women who had experienced severe complications during their first pregnancy, delivery or postnatal period,” says the study’s last author Neda Razaz, associate professor at the same department. “Such events can often have a physical and mental impact on women for a long time to come.”

All in all, 3.5% of the first-time mothers in the study suffered serious complications and were 12% less likely to have a second baby. Most impacted were women who had experienced cardiac complications, a ruptured uterus or severe mental health problems, who were 50% less likely to have another birth than women who had not experienced such complications.

Women who needed respiratory care or who suffered a cerebrovascular accident like stroke or intracranial haemorrhage were 40% less likely to have a second baby. Acute kidney failure, severe preeclampsia and blood clotting were also associated with a lower probability of a second pregnancy. The researchers also compared the women with any sisters they had to control for familial factors.

Reference: “Association of Severe Maternal Morbidity With Subsequent Birth”, Eleni Tsamantioti, Anna Sandström, Charlotte Lindblad Wollmann, Jonathan M Snowden, Neda Razaz, JAMA, online 25 November 2024, doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.20957.