Pregnancy outcome after age 40 and risk of low birth weight

Abstract

A historical cohort study was conducted to examine the pregnancy outcome in women aged 40 or older and determine the effect of age on low birth weight. The pregnancy outcomes of 789 mothers aged 40 years or older were analysed and compared with those of 20,852 mothers aged 20-34 years. There were differences in socioeconomic status and obstetric characteristics between the two groups. The older group had more medical and obstetric complications (diabetes mellitus, chronic hypertension, malpresentation, pregnancy-induced hypertension, placenta praevia, multiple pregnancies, pre-term labour, fetal distress, retained placenta, postpartum haemorrhage and endometritis), more adverse fetal outcomes (low birth weight, low Apgar scores and congenital anomalies) and a higher caesarean section rate. The multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed that maternal age was an independent risk factor for low birth weight. These data will be useful in counselling patients about their expectations and the risk of adverse outcomes and in providing the appropriate necessary care.

Maternal factors influencing low birth weight babies

“…Negi, but contrary to the earlier studies done by Parlington and Tabcharoen, where maternal age <20 years has higher incidence of low birth weight. [7][8][9] Among the mothers who delivered babies with birth weight > 2500 gms, majority (90%) belonged to the age group of 20-29 years, which is similar to the findings observed by N.S. Nair et al…”

Obstetric Outcome in Elderly Mothers aged 35 Years and above: Comparative Study

“…The results show that the maternal outcomes are favourable. Our study confirms a significant higher incidence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus among pregnant women age 35 and older, which has been reported in other studies 11,12,13,20 . The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension are increased by age and considered to induce vascular endothelial damage that occurs with aging 14 .…”

Perinatal correlates of delayed childbearing in a developing country

“…These conflicting findings are not confined to developed countries as demonstrated by similar studies from developing countries [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. However, there appears to be some consensus that AMA is associated with elevated risks for chromosomal abnormalities, malpresentation, spontaneous abortion, preterm labor and cesarean delivery [2,14,19,20].…”

“…Selected factors were guided by evidence from the literature [1,2,6,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Non-clinical information was obtained predominantly from the mothers at enrolment while clinical data was obtained from available hospital records.…”