New Study Finds Number of Multiple Births Affected by Congenital Anomalies has Doubled in the Last 30 Years

The number of congenital anomalies, or birth defects, arising from multiple births has almost doubled since the 1980s, suggests a new study published in BJOG.

The study investigates how the change in the proportion of multiple births has affected the prevalence of congenital anomalies from multiple births, and the relative risk of congenital anomaly in multiple versus singleton births.

This study, led by the University of Ulster over a 24-year period (1984 – 2007) across 14 European countries using data from birth registries, recorded 5.4 million births. Data from the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) was also used which includes congenital anomaly cases among live births, fetal deaths from 20 weeks gestation and terminations of pregnancy in fetal anomaly.

Results showed that within the European population studied, there was approximately a 50% rise in the multiple birth rate from 1984 to 2007. Of the 5.4 million births during the study period, 3.0% of babies were from multiple births. Of the total number of major congenital anomaly cases (148,359), 3.83% were from multiple births.

The study found that the prevalence...