A new study shows that babies conceived via IVF are more likely to die at birth than those conceived naturally.
IVF children are also at an increased risk of being born prematurely and of weighing less at birth.
Scientists looked at more than 2,500 women who had conceived both naturally and through IVF and compared the results to more than one million natural conceptions. It was found that babies who had been conceived through IVF were 31 per cent more likely to die in the period before and after their birth.
IVF conceived children also tended to weigh less at birth, tended to be born earlier and were 26 per cent more likely to be small for their age.
Dr Liv Bente Romundstad, who led the study, believes that the high death rate among IVF babies is likely be linked to the underlying reasons why their mother sought infertility treatment in the first place.
Doctors have tried to reduce the safety risks around IVF by cutting the number of embryos they place in the mother's womb. A maximum of two fertilised eggs are now replaced although many experts would like to see that number cut to one, to reduce the high number of IVF twin births, which are seen as more risky for mother and child.
Official figures now show that one in 64 babies in Britain is now born following IVF treatment.
August 2008
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