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- Title
Older moms' babies do just fine.
- Abstract
This article focuses on issues related to the pregnancy of older women. Women aged 40 and older are more likely than their younger counterparts to have a complicated pregnancy or delivery but their babies undergo almost the same experiences as the babies of the younger women. The older women are more likely to develop gestational diabetes, preeclampsia or placenta previa, they also were more likely to require a cesarean section, an operative vaginal delivery or labor induction. Odd ratios reflecting the likelihood of these events varied according to the women's parity. Their infants are more likely to require admission to neonatal intensive care and to have low one-minute Apgar scores. But the older women were no more likely than those in their 20's to have a preterm delivery, suffer a fetal death or bear an infant who was underweight or small for gestational age. Most of the relative risks for the older women are in the range of 1.5-3.8, but the risk of placenta previa is 6.4 for older women who had given birth in the past and 13.0 for older women having a first birth.
- Subjects
PREGNANCY complications; OLDER women; NEONATAL emergencies; PEDIATRIC intensive care; APGAR score; GESTATIONAL age
- Publication
Family Planning Perspectives, 1996, Vol 28, Issue 5, p186
- ISSN
0014-7354
- Publication type
Article