Abstract
Multifetal pregnancies are high-risk pregnancies—a sweeping statement underlying the day-to-day challenge of caring for the mother and her multiples. Remarkable changes have occurred in the clinical picture and outcomes of multiple gestations during the past 25 yr. First and foremost, the frequency of multifetal pregnancies, primarily attributed to infertility treatment, has reached epidemic dimensions in most developed countries (1). Second, as a consequence of the ability of modern infertility technology to compensate for the reduced fecundity of older age, mothers of multiples are quite often past what was formerly thought to be “old” in terms of pregnancy and parturition. Third, the rapid improvements in neonatal care of the last two decades have pushed the limits of viability to gestational ages that were once considered as late miscarriages. Finally, the revolutionary technological achievements in imaging and genetic testing for singleton pregnancies have been adopted in the management of multifetal gestations to the point that some of the most advanced intrauterine interventions are currently performed exclusively in complicated multifetal pregnancies.
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© 2004 Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
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Blickstein, I., Keith, L.G. (2004). Multifetal Gestations. In: Gronowski, A.M. (eds) Handbook of Clinical Laboratory Testing During Pregnancy. Current Clinical Pathology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-787-1_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-787-1_16
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
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Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-787-1
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