A recent study has found that women acting as pregnancy surrogates face a greater risk of health complications compared to those who carry their own pregnancies. This research highlights the urgent need for enhanced prenatal care and stricter regulations for gestational carriers.
The use of surrogates, also known as gestational carriers, has surged in recent years. Data from England and Wales shows that the number of parental orders—legal documents transferring parentage from the surrogate to the intended parents—increased from 117 in 2011 to 413 in 2020.
Conducted by researchers at McGill University in Canada, the study analyzed data from the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) database, which included 863,017 singleton births in Ontario between 2012 and 2021. Among these, 806 babies were born to surrogates, while 846,124 were conceived naturally and 16,087 through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The study revealed that surrogates were significantly more likely to experience severe complications such as postpartum hemorrhage and pre-eclampsia. Specifically, the rate of severe maternal health complications was 7.8% for surrogates, compared to 2.3% for women who conceived naturally and 4.3% for those who underwent IVF. Additionally, surrogate babies were more prone to preterm birth; however, they did not show an increased risk of severe neonatal complications.
Dr. Maria Velez, the lead author of the study, emphasized the importance of informing both intended parents and gestational carriers about these potential complications. “Those complications are important for gestational carriers,” Velez stated. “But they also have an impact for the intended parents and for the physician who is taking care of this patient.”
Despite surrogates typically possessing certain risk factors—such as prior births, lower socioeconomic status, obesity, and hypertension—these characteristics do not fully account for the heightened risk of complications. After adjusting for variables like age, income, prior births, obesity, smoking, and hypertension, the study found that surrogates had a 2.9 times higher risk of severe postpartum hemorrhage compared to women who conceived without assistance. Furthermore, their likelihood of giving birth before 37 weeks was 1.79 times greater, with similar but slightly lower risks compared to IVF patients.
Dr. Velez suggested that other factors, possibly including immunological responses, may contribute to the increased risk faced by gestational carriers.
Jackie Leach Scully, a bioethics professor at the University of New South Wales who was not involved in the study, noted some limitations, including the small sample size of surrogates and the potential for these women to have previously had healthy pregnancies without complications. Nevertheless, she stressed that the findings indicate a significant gap in understanding the specific risks faced by surrogates and their babies.
“This raises ethical questions about the potential exploitation of women acting as gestational carriers, who bear the risks of pregnancy for someone else,” Scully stated. She also highlighted the scarcity of accurate data on surrogacy risks, calling attention to the historical neglect of women’s health in medical research. “The role of the gestational carrier is often socially obscured, which may exacerbate this issue,” she concluded.
You Might Be Interested In:
-
MIND Diet Linked to Reduced Risk of Cognitive Decline, Study Finds
-
New Research Reveals High Rates of Non-Prescribed ADHD Drug Use Among Party Drug Users
-
Top Employee Mental Health Programs in Canada: Enhancing Workplace Well-Being
