IBD doubles risk of complications in pregnancy

Journal alert

Women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are twice as likely to have babies who are premature, underweight or have congenital abnormalities, a study in Gut has found.

IBD sufferers were also 1.5 times more likely to have had a caesarean section.

The researchers carried out a meta-analysis of 12 studies, published over the past 20 years, involving almost 4,000 women with IBD and more than 320,000 healthy women. Around two-thirds of the IBD patients had Crohn's disease, the rest had ulcerative colitis.

If a patient with IBD becomes pregnant when the disease is active the risks of pregnancy complications are likely to be higher, suggest the authors of the study from St Mary's Hospital, London.

Cornish JA, Tan EKW, Teare J, et al. A meta-analysis on the influence of inflammatory bowel disease on pregnancy Online First Gut 2006; doi: 10.1136/gut.2006.108324