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New medical risks affecting obstetrics after implementation of the two-child policy in China

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Abstract

China recently instituted a two-child policy in response to its aging population, declining workforce and demographic dividend, and the need to develop asocial economy. Additionally, women generally delay having a second child because of the overwhelming pressure in their lives. With the improvements in assisted fertility technologies in recent years, the number of elderly women attempting to bear children has increased. The quality of woman’s eggs and a man’s sperm declined dramatically with increasing age, leading to an increased risk of pregnancy-related complications among older women. Therefore, the types of fertility problems experienced by elderly females must be provided with considerable attention by obstetricians. This commentary article focuses on the medical problems faced by older second-child pregnant women. This work discusses their increased rates of infertility, spontaneous abortion, fetal malformation, gestational diabetes, cesarean section, placenta previa, postpartum hemorrhage, postpartum depression, and hypertensive disorders, which complicate pregnancy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Pillar Program of China during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan Period (No. 2014BAI05B05) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81202059 and 81172464). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Qiang Li & Dongrui Deng

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  1. Qiang Li
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  2. Dongrui Deng
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Correspondence to Dongrui Deng.

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Li, Q., Deng, D. New medical risks affecting obstetrics after implementation of the two-child policy in China. Front. Med. 11, 570–575 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-017-0552-5

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