The physical and mental development of co-sibs surviving selective reduction of multifetal pregnancies

Fetal reduction in humans is still controversial and considered exploratory. The medical, legal and ethical issues involved have been widely discussed, yet, the long term effects on the surviving co-sibs have not been documented. We report on the psychomotor and physical development of seven children born following fetal reduction in three women, initially bearing 13 fetuses altogether. To these children we matched controls for birth weight, gestational age, sex, mode of delivery, parity, age at examination and mother's age and education. The children's age at evaluation varied between 12.5 and 38 months. It was found that the mental and physical indices of these children did not differ from their matched controls. It is our belief that reduction of pregnancies of high fetal order into pregnancies of low fetal order is medically acceptable.