Women who give birth for the first ...

Women who give birth for the first time at age 40 or older have an almost individual in two chance of delivering by dint of cesarean section, according to the consequence s of a study that appears in the January issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology In single of the largest studies to anticipate at the birth outcomes of older women researchers at the University of California at Davis examined the birth and discharge records of infants born in California hospitals during 1992 and 1993 They ground that 47% of 24,032 age 40 and older nulliparous (ie, first-time) mothers had cesarean sections, twice the rate of 225% for a manage group of nulliparous women in their twenties. Women age 40 and older who had previously given birth had a cesarean rate of 296%

The researchers attribute the higher rate of cesarean sections among older mothers to an over-all increased complication rate for these women as compared with women in their twenties. Virtually each complication of pregnancy was increased in the older population of nulliparous women including birth asphyxia, fetal putting out restriction, malpresentation, and gestational diabetes.

The researchers give an inkling of that anxiety among older patients and their physicians also could help explain on what account older women have a higher rate of cesarean sections. Many of these women have a history of infertility, and physicians could be resorting to cesarean sections to avoid possible poor outcomes

W M Gilbert, T s Nesbitt, B Danielsen, "Childbearing beyond age 40: Pregnancy result in 24, 032 cases," Obstetrics & Gynecology 93 (January 1999) 9-14

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