Childbirth: Trouble From the Start

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/health/children/21CHIL.html

Childbirth: Trouble From the Start

By JOHN O'NEIL

Whether or not boys are harder to raise, they appear to be harder to deliver, according to a new study that found higher rates of Caesarean sections and other complications when boys were born.

The study, released on Saturday in BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Association, was conducted at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin through a review of the records from about 8,000 births, all of them beginning normally.

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The researchers, led by Dr. Maeve A. Eogan, found a higher incidence of fetal distress during labor when boys were being born. Also, the births of boys required more frequent use of forceps and greater use of the hormone oxytocin, which speeds contractions.

No difference was observed between boys and girls in the length of pregnancy or in the need for antibiotics during delivery.

The researchers speculated that the problem might be related to the size of boys' heads, which are bigger than girls'.

The researchers acknowledged that the greater length of labor might be related to head size, but they added that head size would not completely explain the difference in complications.

"What this study does show," they concluded, "is that when we say `it must be a boy' as a humorous explanation of complications of labor and delivery, we are scientifically more correct than previously supposed."

Dr. Eogan said she hoped the findings would not increase anxiety among pregnant women who knew or suspected that they were carrying boys.

"Male infants were not more likely to need admission to special care baby units or intensive care," she added.



 

 

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