Abstract

Objective: This study examined the birth weight of singleton babies born after assisted reproductive techniques and their neurodevelopment outcome until the sixth month of birth in comparison with the singleton babies born without infertility treatment.
Study design: Prospective case-control study
Setting: University-based hospitals. four hundred patients were enrolled in the study. Two hundred were in control group without infertility and two hundred with infertility treatment as case group
Main outcome measure(s): mean weights at birth, at the third and the sixth month and developing.
Examination results: The mean Birth Weights (BW) of infants of the case group and those infants of the control group were 2998.97g±305.93 and 3245.82 g±414.58 respectively. The difference between groups was statistically significant (p=0.001). Neurodevelopment delay occurred in infertility group, like the ability to recognize bottle and breast at the third month and the ability to reach the mouth by the leg and roll and sit alone at the sixth month. It seems that lower birth weight is associated with some retardation in neurodevelopment function of infertility group’s infants.
Conclusion: Singleton pregnancy infants who were born after assisted reproductive techniques had lower birth weight than those without background of infertility treatment. This difference may have some effects on their neurodevelopmental ability.

Keywords: Birth weight; Neurodevelopment outcome