Triplet pregnancy: a review of 27 cases.

Analysis of 27 consecutive triplet pregnancies seen at the University Teaching Hospital in Enugu, Nigeria, from 1972 to 1979 revealed an incidence of one in 1014 live births; three of these mothers had had a previous twin pregnancy. Overall fetal mortality was 30.9%, with babies of older women faring better than those of the younger. The fetal death rate was 1.8 times greater in the absence of antenatal supervision. Although the male infant was generally heavier at birth, sex did not influence survival and neither predominated. Surprisingly, vertex delivery, independent of birth order, was associated with the worst prognosis. All babies of sets having a combined birth weight of 2800 gm and under died; all those 5440 gm and above survived. Maturity, rather than birth weight, determined fetal survival, which was also unaffected by time interval between deliveries of a set. The first triplet did have the least birth hazard.