Using Machine Learning to Predict Complications in Pregnancy: A Systematic Review
Overview
Affiliations
Artificial intelligence is widely used in medical field, and machine learning has been increasingly used in health care, prediction, and diagnosis and as a method of determining priority. Machine learning methods have been features of several tools in the fields of obstetrics and childcare. This present review aims to summarize the machine learning techniques to predict perinatal complications. To identify the applicability and performance of machine learning methods used to identify pregnancy complications. A total of 98 articles were obtained with the keywords "machine learning," "deep learning," "artificial intelligence," and accordingly as they related to perinatal complications ("complications in pregnancy," "pregnancy complications") from three scientific databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. These were managed on the Mendeley platform and classified using the PRISMA method. A total of 31 articles were selected after elimination according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The features used to predict perinatal complications were primarily electronic medical records (48%), medical images (29%), and biological markers (19%), while 4% were based on other types of features, such as sensors and fetal heart rate. The main perinatal complications considered in the application of machine learning thus far are pre-eclampsia and prematurity. In the 31 studies, a total of sixteen complications were predicted. The main precision metric used is the AUC. The machine learning methods with the best results were the prediction of prematurity from medical images using the support vector machine technique, with an accuracy of 95.7%, and the prediction of neonatal mortality with the XGBoost technique, with 99.7% accuracy. It is important to continue promoting this area of research and promote solutions with multicenter clinical applicability through machine learning to reduce perinatal complications. This systematic review contributes significantly to the specialized literature on artificial intelligence and women's health.
Utilization of tree-based machine learning models for predicting low birth weight cases.
de Morais F, da Silva Rocha E, Masson G, do Nascimento Filho D, Maria Mendes K, de Sousa Dourado R BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2025; 25(1):207.
PMID: 40011804 PMC: 11863662. DOI: 10.1186/s12884-025-07303-x.
Zhang Y, Gu X, Yang N, Xue Y, Ma L, Wang Y Biomedicines. 2025; 13(2).
PMID: 40002760 PMC: 11853338. DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines13020347.
Li R, Zhou C, Ye K, Chen H, Peng M Front Immunol. 2025; 16:1496046.
PMID: 39967661 PMC: 11832505. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1496046.
Sylvain M, Nyabyenda E, Uwase M, Komezusenge I, Ndikumana F, Ngaruye I BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2025; 25(1):76.
PMID: 39939998 PMC: 11823242. DOI: 10.1186/s12911-025-02921-z.
An AI-based approach to predict delivery outcome based on measurable factors of pregnant mothers.
Owusu-Adjei M, Ben Hayfron-Acquah J, Frimpong T, Gaddafi A PLOS Digit Health. 2025; 4(2):e0000543.
PMID: 39908236 PMC: 11798466. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000543.