Behaviour of pregnancy in over 40 years-old females

OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the behaviour of some biomedical and sociodemographic variables and the most frequent complications in over 40 years-old females who gave birth. METHODS: an analytical observational case-control study of some aspects of over 40 years-old female pregnancies was conducted in 93 selected females who had livebirths from January 1st to December 31st, 2007. Every woman who had a baby after each of these over 40 years-old mothers were taken as control. Medical histories of all the cases under study were revised and data were taken according to biomedical and sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: it was found that incidence of childbirths in these age groups increased in the last five years, accounting for 3% at present and 19% of nulliparas; over 60% had a history of changing their couple; overweight was predominant in 43% at the onset of pregnancy; 39,7% were smokers and 59,1% had dystocic childbirth. Hypertension prevailed in associated pathologies. There was 9,6% complications, being obstetric hysterectomy the most common one. CONCLUSIONS: the increase in the number of women who give birth at age 40 and older was the observed tendency. The work of the pre-conception risk medical consultation service is of vital importance. It may be concluded that every woman in good health condition with adequate prenatal care can mostly succeed in having good childbirth.