Michelle Emblenton, a biochemist at inviTRA, talks about the reasons for reducing the possibility of multiple pregnancy in IVF:
When a couple decides to undergo an IVF treatment, they may have had a long and arduous journey to get there where they are and they are very concerned about the embryo transfer and increasing the probabilities of having the treatment being successful. The idea of a multiple pregnancy, therefore, may be very very tempting. Having two or three babies when you've struggled for so long to have one may be a fantastic idea for the parent, but the reality is multiple pregnancies do carry with them a great number of risks for the mother and for the babies themselves. With multiple pregnancies we have the added risk of a pre-term birth.
A pre-term birth is a baby born before 37 weeks, and obviously pre-term babies may have more health problems as they are not sufficiently developed in order to be outside of the womb in that current moment. We also have more risks of the membranes themselves during pregnancy becoming ruptured, which can lead to a pre-term birth. There is an elevated increase of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes really does carry extra risk for the mothers and the babies. There is also the risk of the babies being underweight at birth. And, finally, a risk of delivery by C-section. Obviously, the multiple pregnancies are more likely to give birth by C-section rather than a natural birth
