Fertility Treatments Linked to Cerebral Palsy

A recent study in Boston found that women taking fertility treatments in order to increase their chances of conception have a higher risk of their newborns developing cerebral palsy. The statistics show that fertility treatments may increase the chance of a woman having a premature birth.

With medical advances in treating premature babies, the survival rate for them has jumped to almost 90 percent. With the increase in premature baby births, and with the good survival rate, comes a higher risk of babies having some development disorder. Some twenty to fifty percent of premature babies will have some developmental disorder. About 10 percent will have cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is a serious group of developmental issues that occur due to some injury in the brain before, during, or shortly after birth. Premature babies are at a higher risk for developing CP because they usually have oxygen deprivation, which can lead to brain damage.