Today more and more woman are giving birth at a later age, yet according to a recent study done by Prof. Yariv Yogev, senior physician in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Division at the Rabin Medic Center, there are many risks involved. This study, whose goal was to evaluate pregnancy outcome in women at an advanced maternal age, looked at how women of varying ages fared while giving birth between 2000 and 2008.

The study included nearly 80,000 women who gave birth during that time, of which only 177 (0.2%) were forty-five or older. The majority of older women conceived using donor eggs, and 80% delivered their babies by Cesarean Section, more than twice the overall rate. Comparing these older mothers to those mothers forty-four years and younger the researchers found that the rates of gestational diabetes, mellitus, and hypertensive complications were much higher in the older woman and that they had many more complications during pregnancy and at birth.

The results of this study, which were published in the December issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, clearly showed that pregnancy at an advanced maternal age is associated with significant increased maternal and fetal risk and that this group is a distinct obstetric high-risk entity. These findings shed more light on the potential consequences of late pregnancies and the importance of excellent medical care for this group of new mothers.