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COUPLES FACE BAN ON IVF TWINS

WOMEN may be prevented from having twins through IVF treatment because so many are being born that they are swamping intensive-care units.

Would-be mothers will be allowed to have only one embryo implanted at a time, under proposals drawn up by a group of leading doctors.

The change could reduce women’s chances of having a successful pregnancy but the group says the move is needed to halt the sharp rise in IVF twins, who are blocking neonatal intensive-care beds.

At present women are allowed to have two embryos implanted to increase their chances of success, but this has contributed to a near doubling in twin births to 9,500 a year since the late 1970s.

Mothers of twins are six times more likely to suffer from pre-eclampsia — high blood pressure during pregnancy — and three times more likely to die in childbirth. Twins are four times more likely to die within 28 days of birth and five times more likely to have cerebral palsy than single babies.

Professor Peter Braude, who chairs the expert group for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said twins were “a complication, not a bonus”.

“The public does not realise that twins are a health risk. The need to tackle the problem is unequivocal. Neonatal units are stretched to the extent that you cannot always get your baby into one.

“If you deliver your baby in London, you find the baby is being shipped off to Northampton. We need to separate mother and baby or one twin from another. If we could lower the multiple pregnancy rate, we would have more cots available. It is stopping other babies getting into neonatal units.”

His group is expected to recommend that only one embryo is implanted at a time in women under 35, while remaining embryos are to be frozen for transplanting if the first attempt at pregnancy fails.

Those having IVF privately would also be affected because the HFEA licenses all clinics, not just those on the National Health Service. About 30,000 couples have IVF each year.

The group is expected to say that, for NHS patients, the state should fund the implantation of another frozen embryo if the first attempt fails.