Neonatal Deaths Among Infants of Diabetic Mothers

Abstract

In spite of modern obstetric and medical management, the total fetal loss in pregnancies complicated by maternal diabetes mellitus is still appreciably higher than in nondiabetic women. The newborn infant of the diabetic mother shows anatomical and biochemical peculiarities which may be indicative of the mechanisms of fetal wastage operative under these conditions. For this reason, the detailed postmortem findings in a uniquely large series of these infants are reported. Gellis and Hsia¹ have recently reported on a group of 934 pregnancies among women with diabetes. Of the 721 liveborn infants in their series, 104 died during early infancy. The present report is based on those 95 who were examined post mortem. These infants were delivered at the Faulkner Hospital, Boston, and the Boston Lying-in Hospital, between 1940 and 1956, and include 29 infants described by Warren and LeCompte² and 40 reported by Winter and Gellis.³ Because