Learn what expectant mothers in this age group are at risk for…
It’s no secret that moms-to-be over age 40 tend to have a harder time conceiving and carrying a pregnancy. Now, a new study has found a strong association between older expectant moms and problems during delivery. The study, published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that women over 40 were up to three times more likely to deliver their baby via an emergency cesarean section compared to younger women.
The research team behind the study took a look at hospital records of about 170,000 first-time moms. The results showed that women over 40 had an emergency C-section rate of 22.4 percent. Meanwhile, only 6.7 percent of women between 20 and 24 had an emergency cesarean, while 16 percent of women from 25-29 underwent an emergency C-section. The main reasons that necessitated a C-section were fetal distress, when signs indicate the baby’s health may be at risk, and the baby’s size—aka, the baby is too large to fit through the birth canal.
The over-40 moms also had higher odds of having an “operatic delivery,” meaning the baby is delivered vaginally but doctors had to use forceps, vacuums, and other devices. About 24 percent of the older mothers had operatic deliveries, as opposed to 8.4 percent of the 20-24 group and 16 percent of the 25-29 group. What makes the study important is that all of the moms, no matter what age group they fell into, had been deemed “low-risk,” because they had no other conditions known to complicate pregnancy, wrote the study authors. This is crucial as previous studies suggesting that older moms were more likely to have C-sections generally looked at women considered “high-risk.”…
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