Background:
Pregnancy at extreme ages is a
risk factor for maternal, perinatal and infantile
death.
Aim:
To assess the obstetric
risk of
women over 40 years old. Material and
methods:
The
risk of maternal, late fetal, neonatal and infantile deaths and the
risk of
low birth weight was assessed in
women over 40 years old and compared to the
risk of
women aged 20-34 years. Data was obtained from the 1999
Annual Report of the National
Statistics Institute and the
odds ratios (OR) with a 95 percent
confidence interval were calculated.
Results:
Women over 40 years had a higher
risk of
maternal death (OR 7.13, 3.31-14.97), late
fetal death (OR 2.19, 1.69-2.85),
neonatal death (OR 1.8, 1.4-2.32), infantile
death (OR 1.8, 1.49-2.18) and
low birth weight (OR 1.72, 1.58-1.88).
Conclusions:
The higher reproductive
risk of
women over 40 years is confirmed. Better
birth control programs at this age
will reduce this
risk