THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL AGE AND COMPLICATIONS OF PREGNANCY

Most researches showed that pregnancy in over-age women might result in
complications such as abortion, diabetes mellitus, and low birth weight newborns. The purpose of this
study was to determine the relationship between pregnancies beyond age 35 with complications in
women who consulted the zanjan Valie-Asr Hospital in 1383.
Materials and Method: In this retrospective analytical study 300 subjects (including 150 pregnancies
beyond maternal age 35 and 150 pregnancies under maternal age 35) were selected from the target
population. Subjects were multiparous women that were similar with regard to race, place of stay,
educational level, job, and prenatal care. A questionnaire was used to gather the data. Responses were
edited in a computer program SPSS and underwent statistical analysis with Chi-square test.
Results: The result of this study showed that there were a significant relationship between maternal
age beyond 35 and pregnancy induced hypertension (p<0.0002), abortion (p<0.001), and low-birth
weight (0<0.03).
Conclusion: Taking into consideration the results of current and previous studies it seems that
pregnancy beyond the age of 35 can be accompanied by various serious complications such as lowbirth- weight newborns, hypertension, and abortion. Therefore, obstetricians and midwives should
inform mothers that pregnancy beyond 35 might result in serious complications. Moreover, familiarity
with health issues and culture formation might result in reduction of such pregnancies