Evaluation of counselling for pregnant women exposed to potentially hazardous environmental factors

Abstract

Pregnancy outcomes of 546 women seeking advice for exposure to suspected dangerous environmental factors during pregnancy were analysed. Induced abortion was recommended to 58 women, and this advice was followed by 55 of them. An additional 24 pregnancies were interrupted. The rates of fetal death (spontaneous abortion, stillbirth and infant death) in the non-terminated pregnancies corresponded to national figures. The proportion of birth defects among the liveborn infants of women exposed to hazardous physical, chemical, microbial and maternal factors was 5/67 (7.5%), 11/120 (9.2%), 6/158 (3.8%) and 1/22 (4.5%), respectively. These figures did not differ significantly from the expected ones based on the Hungarian registered and estimated figures. Furthermore, a causal relation between the environmental factors and the defects could be excluded in all but one case in which there was exposure to a high dose of oestrogen.