Primipaternities in families: is the incidence of pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders in multigravidas an anthropological marker of reproduction?
Pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders (and especially preeclampsia) remain nowadays the major problem of human reproduction as it occurs in at least 10% of all world population births. It is a major cause of maternal-fetal mortality and morbidity in developed and developing countries. This disease was until recently classically considered as a disease of primigravidas with little recurrence in multigravidas. Nevertheless, recent evidences in the last half decade suggest that this disease is indeed a disease of first pregnancies, but at the level of a couple (primipaternity) rather than only the mother's side (primigravidity). Therefore, multigravidas share the risk with primigravidas in case of conception with a new partner. We expose the biological plausibility of this new approach (immunogenetic factors), and propose its epidemiological consequences with proposals of future research for health workers or demographers working at the level of populations. If pregnancy-induced disorders are disease of new couples, then their patterns are probably very different according to the broad reproductive patterns existing among different cultures (contraception, matrifocality or patrifocality, age at marriage, changes of reproductive partners et cetera).
Neonatology, Centre Hospitalier Territorial, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
P Y
PY
Robillard
G A
GA
Dekker
T C
TC
Hulsey
D005260:Female; D020073:Gravidity; D006801:Humans; D017533:Marital Status; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D013997:Time Factors