Prenatal and Maternal Outcomes in Advanced Maternal Age, a Comparative Study

The increased maternal age is associated with many prenatal and perinatal complications including stillbirth, preterm birth and cesarean delivery. This study was carried out to investigate the prenatal and maternal outcomes among mothers older and younger than 35 in Fars province, Iran. This study included 1962 singleton deliveries. The prenatal and neonatal outcomes were recorded retrospectively and compared between mothers aged older and younger than 35 years. A designed questionnaire was used for data collection of parity, gravida (gravidity and parity are two terms that refer to the number of times a female has been pregnant and carried the pregnancies to a viable gestational age), outcomes of the pregnancy, labor, and neonatal outcome. Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 15, and the P < 0.05 was considered significant. The mean age of 978 mothers < 35 years-old and 984 of those aged ≥ 35 years was 31.6 ± 6.8 years. Mothers aged ≥ 35 years experienced higher risk of preeclampsia (P < 0.001), gestational diabetes mellitus (P < 0.001), placental abruption (P = 0.003), cesarean delivery (P < 0.001), low Apgar at 1 minute (P = 0.001) and low Apgar at 5 minutes (P = 0.001) compared to those aged less than 35 years. Women should be alerted by the higher risks for prenatal and maternal morbidity associated with delayed pregnancy. Health care providers should be aware of the impact of delayed childbearing on the health care resources.