Advanced Maternal Age and Adverse Perinatal Outcomes – One Decade Analysis

Objective: To appoint the risk of stillbirth and the other adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes in women of AMA (Advanced maternal age) that traditionally described as pregnancy in women aged 35 years or older. Methods: Our study was a retrospective investigation of all women with singleton pregnancies who gave birth at > 20 weeks’ gestation aged 35 - 39 years old (early advanced maternal aged group, group I, n=926), aged 40 - 49 years old (late advanced maternal aged group, group II, n=184) and aged 20 - 35 years old (control group, group III, n=1110) between January 2008 and January 2018. Parameters such as age, parity, fetal sex, fetal birth weight, birth pattern (cesarean and vaginal delivery) were examined. The variables investigated to determine perinatal outcomes were low birth weight, macrosomic fetus and stillbirth frequency.Results: Advanced maternal aged birth ratio to all births was 4.5 %. 83.4% of the advanced age group were the early advanced maternal aged. The low birth weight rate was significantly higher in the AMA group (8.6 % - 5.9 %) (p=0.042). At the same time, the rate of macrosomia was significantly higher in the AMA group too. (9.5 % - 9.1 %) (p=0.042). The rate of caesarean delivery was significantly higher in AMA group (63.7 % - 56.4 %). The stillbirth rate was significantly higher in AMA group (1,6 % - 0,5 %) (p=0.005). In group II; male gender was lower (47.3 % - 55 %) (p=0.034), stillbirth rate was higher (3.8 % - 1.2 %) (p=0.019), birth weight was lower (3193 - 3287) (p=0.048). Conclusion: The risk of stillbirth was significantly higher in the late advanced maternal aged group. Pregnancies over 35 years of age are high-risk pregnancies necessitating more careful antenatal follow-up in which follow-up of pregnancy must be done more carefully. National mother friendly health policies must focus more on AMA pregnancies. More research is needed to find suitable and well-timed interventions to decrease adverse maternal and also perinatal outcomes.

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