London - Women who conceive using IVF face a much higher risk of potentially fatal childbirth complications, a study has found.
Use of IVF has soared in Britain in recent years to about 50 000 couples a year, and is generally safe. But a study has found that women who conceive twins or triplets using IVF have nearly three times the risk of suffering dangerous bleeding soon after childbirth.
Experts said all couples who undergo fertility treatment should be advised to give birth in hospital rather than at home.
Norwegian researchers, who published their results in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, found a major cause of the increased risk is because IVF patients are more likely to have twins or triplets, which in itself raises the risk of complications. But they also discovered that those who had only one baby were still 1.5 times as likely to have a serious bleed.