Maternal Quality of Life Following a Periviable Delivery

Data on long-term maternal quality of life following a periviable delivery are lacking. We investigated quality of life measures among patients who delivered a periviable infant.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients who delivered between gestational ages 22^0/7 to 25^6/7 weeks at a single institution from 2013 to 2019 and who completed the validated World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire between 2021 and 2022. Mothers who had a surviving infant discharged from the hospital were compared with mothers who had an intrauterine or neonatal demise. Baseline characteristics were summarized, and scores were evaluated based on the 4 prespecified WHOQOL-BREF domains: physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment.

Overall, 58 patients participated: 32 mothers with a surviving infant and 26 mothers with a demise. Maternal age was lower in the mothers with a surviving infant (25.2 ± 3.9 years vs 29.0 ± 6.0 years; P=0.01). Mean duration from delivery to study start date was not different between the groups (5.1 ± 2.0 years vs 4.5 ± 2.1 years; P=0.31). Mothers with surviving infants scored higher (indicating higher quality of life) in the WHOQOL-BREF psychological health and social relationships domains compared to mothers with a demise. Mothers with a surviving infant were more likely to be satisfied with their own health than mothers with a demise, but overall quality of life was not different between the 2 groups.

In this small cohort, mothers with an infant who survived a periviable delivery, despite possible long-term health complications for the infant, reported improved quality of life in some domains compared to mothers whose infants did not survive.