Skip Navigation


Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on September 26, 2008
Human Reproduction 2009 24(1):226-232; doi:10.1093/humrep/den357
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF )
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
24/1/226    most recent
den357v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nohr, E.A.
Right arrow Articles by Olsen, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Nohr, E.A.
Right arrow Articles by Olsen, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Waiting time to pregnancy according to maternal birthweight and prepregnancy BMI

E.A. Nohr1,6, M. Vaeth2, S. Rasmussen3, C.H. Ramlau-Hansen4 and J. Olsen1,5

1 Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, Building 260, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark 2 Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark 3 Department of Health Statistics, National Board of Health, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark 4 Department of Occupational Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark 5 Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

6 Correspondence address. Tel: +45 8942 6087; Fax: +45 8613 1580; E-mail: ean{at}soci.au.dk

BACKGROUND: An association between a woman’s own birthweight and her fecundity has been suggested, but no empirical data have been published on the association between maternal birthweight and waiting time to pregnancy (TTP).

METHODS: In the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002), which is an ongoing study of 92 274 women and their pregnancies, information about TTP and prepregnancy BMI was collected during pregnancy. At the 7-year follow-up of the children, 21 786 mothers reported their own birthweight and whether they were born at term or preterm. The association between maternal birthweight and TTP is presented as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS: Low maternal birthweight (≤2500 g for term and ≤1500 g for preterm birth) was associated with an increased risk of TTP of >1 year [term: 1.2 (1.0–1.5); preterm: 1.8 (1.1–3.1)]. The latter association was strongest in women with a BMI < 25 kg/m2 [2.6 (1.4–4.7)]. High maternal birthweight (>4500 g for term and >3500 g for preterm) was also associated with an increased risk of TTP of >1 year [1.5 (1.0–2.0) and 1.3 (0.7–2.4), respectively], especially in women with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 [1.8 (1.1–3.1) and 2.5 (1.0–6.4), respectively].

CONCLUSIONS: High or low maternal birthweight was associated with TTP > 1 year. Longer waiting times in women with very low birthweight may reflect an effect of being born very preterm. Subfecundity may partly be programmed in foetal life by factors that cause or correlate with foetal growth.

Key words: fecundity/time to pregnancy/maternal birthweight/foetal growth/preterm birth

Submitted on July 13, 2008; resubmitted on September 4, 2008; accepted on September 8, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.