Objective: We aimed to determine whether the risks of adverse outcomes were greater in women who had pregnancies ending in stillbirth than in those with no previous history of stillbirth.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included all women who had undergone their first and second deliveries at Bakirkoy Women's and Children's Education and Research Hospital between 2002 and 2011. Women who delivered following a previous stillbirth after 20 complete weeks of gestation were compared with those who had delivered but had no history of stillbirth after 20 weeks of gestation.
Results: We compared 201 subsequent births to women with previous histories of stillbirth with 402 live births to women with no such history. The rates of pre-eclampsia [odds ratio (OR), 3.4; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.5-7.4], HELLP syndrome (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.2-9.6), low birth weight (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 0.7-3.5) and malpresentation (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.6-4.8) were significantly higher in the case group. Howewer, the rates of stillbirth were similar between the groups.
Conclusion: We found increased rates of obstetric and perinatal complications in subsequent pregnancies in women with histories of stillbirth. Thus, the results of this study suggest that pregnant women with histories of stillbirth should be followed closely, beginning in the early gestational period.
Keywords: Obstetric and perinatal complications; stillbirth; subsequent pregnancy.