Pregnancy outcome at maternal age 40 and older

Objective: the objective of this study was to compare pregnancy outcome of women aged 40 & above with those of 20- 30 year. study design: cross-sectional and comparative study. setting: department of obstetrics& gynecology peoples university of medical & health sciences nawabshah. duration: from 1st july 2011 to 31st dec 2011. material & method: consecutive 100 cases of women aged 40 & above and 100 cases of women aged between 20-30 years were included in the study,and labeled as group a & b respectively. all patients were under gone general & physical examination & routine laboratories tests. the biological effects of age on the pregnancy out come were observed,& results were tabulated. result: the mean age for case group was 41.56 ± 2.06 & that for control group 25 ± 2 years. among the maternal complication of increased maternal age were abortion in early half & pre-term labor in second half of pregnancy (10%) & (12%) respectively. hypertension (14%) & diabetes (9%) were more common than in younger age group. risk of fetal malformation (11%) was also three fold more than younger group (2%). increased rate of c- section (6%) was seen more with advanced maternal age with high parity. conclusion: the advanced maternal age is candidate with high risk of maternal & perinatal morbidity &mortality. appropriate management can be formulated to ensure better maternal & fetal outcome during pregnancy.