13. Mitteilung: Zum Einfluss vorausgegangener Totgeburten auf das mittlere Geburtsgewicht, die Frühgeborenenrate und den somatischen Entwicklungsstand Neugeborener

Abstract

In a retrospective analysis, data from the perinatal survey of the years 1995-1997 were examined to determine the influence of mothers' previous stillbirths on the average birthweight, the rate of premature births, and the somatic classification of newborns. Mothers with previous live births, miscarriages or abortions were excluded from the 1.8 million perinatal data, which means that only cases with a history of stillbirths were considered in the analysis (exposed group: n = 2649). The comparison group consisted of all newborns of mothers without previous live births, stillbirths, miscarriages or abortions (n = 674 814). The high number of cases made it possible to analyse specific age groups of the mothers. The average birthweight is reduced in the case of previous stillbirths. The reduction in birthweight amounts to 69 to 168 grams in the various age groups. In the case of 20-year-old mothers with previous stillbirths, the rate of premature births increased 2.8-fold (from 7.8 to 21.6%) in comparison to newborns of mothers without a history of stillbirths, and for 30-year-old mothers with a history of stillbirths the increase was 2.3-fold (from 8 to 18.3%). The increase in the percentage of hypotrophic, eutrophic and hypertrophic premature births in the case of previous stillbirths occurs at the expense of the percentage of term newborns (-10.3%). On the basis of these results, we conclude that pregnant women with a history of stillbirths should be viewed as a risk group and as such should be closely monitored. The increased rate of hypertrophic newborns in the group of mothers with previous stillbirths makes a careful exclusion of gestational diabetes advisable.