Study Reassuring on Pregnancies With MS

Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) are more likely to have small babies or give birth by cesarean section, new research finds. But they don’t have a higher risk of other pregnancy problems, the study says. Researchers looked at a database that covered 18.8 million U.S. births. About 10,000 of the babies were born to women with MS. About 2.7% of these women had babies with restricted growth. This compares with 1.9% of other women. The cesarean section rate was 42% for women with MS and 33% for other women. Women with MS had average rates of preeclampsia. This is a potentially dangerous problem that occurs in some pregnancies. Women with MS also had average rates of early membrane rupture and high blood pressure. The journal Neurology published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 18.