[Pregnancy outcomes in women of advanced maternal age]

During the last decade there is a trend all over the world women at advanced age/older than 35 years old/ and especially educated ones to postpone their reproductive plans. Pregnancy and birth outcomes in women >35 years old I traditionally associated with increasing risk of complications both for the mother and the foetus.

To study the frequency and the obstetric outcome of pregnancy at advanced age women in the University Hospital "St. George" Plovdiv.

Women who at the period of the delivery were at more than 35 years old and were seen at the obstetric unit of the above hospital were recruited into the study. Observed complications during the pregnancy and delivery were also calculated.

For the period of 10 years the teenage pregnancy rate was 5.10% /n= 594/5.10% of all 11657 deliveries /94.90%/. 504 of the patients were aged 35 to 39 years /4. 32%/ while only 90 /0.78%/ were aged > 40 years old. In 54.88% of the cases the deliveries were not complicated; in the rest of the cases there were complications or the delivery ended surgicaly.

The increasing frequency of the advanced age pregnancy and deliveries and improved pre and intranatal counseling has made advanced maternal age compatible with successful pregnancy for the great majority of such women.