Original researchChildbearing beyond maternal age 50 and fetal outcomes in the United States
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Two sets of National Center for Health Statistics public-access vital record files were used in this study—the 1997–1999 natality files and the 1997–1999 fetal death files. Expanded reporting of maternal age from 49+ years to individual years of age from 49–54 was initiated in 1997. The 1997–1999 period represents the years for which US data were available at the time of this study. The completeness of reporting live births on US vital records is excellent (approximately 99%). The procedures
Results
Of 12,066,854 deliveries that resulted in live births or fetal deaths in the United States between 1997–1999 inclusive, 539 were to women aged 50 and older (four per 100,000). The proportion of young (20–29), mature (30–39), and very mature (40–49) mothers was 52%, 33.5%, and 2.2% respectively. The sociodemograhic characteristics of pregnant women achieving pregnancy at 50 years and older are summarized in Table 1 and compared with the other age groups. Older mothers belonged to three broad
Discussion
We found the rates of maternal complications, (cardiac disease, chronic hypertension, diabetes, preeclampsia, abruptio placentae, and placenta previa) to be consistently elevated with increase in maternal age. This is in agreement with most published results of studies on advanced maternal age and pregnancy outcomes.17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 The increased incidence of cardiac disease, chronic hypertension, and diabetes is evidently related to the aging process in the mother.
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