Advanced maternal age and obstetric outcome

Advanced maternal age defined as age 35 years or more at estimated date of delivery is considered to have higher incidence of obstetric complications and adverse pregnancy outcome than younger women. The objective of this study was to compare the obstetric and perinatal outcome of pregnancies in women with advanced maternal age > or = 35 years with that of younger women < 35 years. A prospective comparative study was carried out in department of obstetrics and gynecology at Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital over the period of one year from October 2012 to September 2013. The obstetric and perinatal outcome of 90 women with advanced maternal age (study group) were compared with those of 90 younger women aged 20-34 years (control group). Among antenatal complications, women of advanced maternal age had increased incidence of hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (26.6% vs 4.4%; p = 0.00009) and breech presentation (8.8% vs 1.1%; p = 0.04). There were no significant difference between two groups in incidence of antepartum hemorrhage, gestational diabetes mellitus, prelabor rupture of membrane and preterm delivery. The rate of caesarean delivery was significantly higher in advanced maternal age (28.8% vs 17.7%; p = 0.05). In perinatal outcome, older women had significantly higher incidence of perinatal death (7.7% vs 0%; p = 0.01). There were no significant differences in low birth weight rate and apgar score less than 7 at five minutes of life in two groups. Thus from this study, it can be concluded that advanced age women had higher incidence of hypertensive disorder of pregnancies and malpresentation, were more likely to deliver by caesarean section and had increased incidence of perinatal death.