Pregnancy After 40: Healthy Weight Improves Risk

Pregnancy after 40 does carry more risks, but brute at a healthy weight by now getting pregnant seems to adjust those risks, add-on research suggests.

"If you are healthy, on intensity of 40, and not obese, your risks of pregnancy complications are extremely less than an obese 40-year-dated," says speculative John R. Barton, MD, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington, Ky. "And [they are] not that much stand-in, supplementary than a in the look of C-section rate, than a non-obese, younger lady."

He compared obese and non-obese pregnant women in his psychoanalysis. Some were in their 20s. Others were in their 40s.

Obese older women had more complications than older women at healthy weights, he found. Barton presented the findings this week at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in San Diego.

While birth rates in younger women have been declining, pregnancy after 40 is almost the rise, according to the CDC. From 2008 to 2009, the birth rate for women ages 40 to 44 increased by 3%, to 10.1 births per 1,000 women. That is the highest reported past 1967 for that age bracket.


Pregnancy After 40: Study Details

Barton looked at data in version to more than 53,000 women. They were enrolled in a pregnancy risk assessment and education program conducted by Alere, a health incline and diagnosis company, in the midst of July 2006 and August 2011.

Of that sum, 1,231 were 40 or older. Of those, 228 were obese.

The women were pregnant for the first period and expecting a single baby. Women when heart illness, high blood pressure, diabetes, or auxiliary chronic health conditions were not included in the psychiatry.

A body gathering index of 25-29.9 is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or substitute is considered obese.

Barton looked at four groups:

Younger obese women, 20-29, gone an average body accrue index (BMI) of 35
Older obese women, average age 41, taking into account an average BMI of 35
Younger non-obese women, 20-29, considering an average BMI of 23
Older non-obese women, average age 41, later an average BMI of almost 24
His findings:

Older women, regardless of weight, were more likely to have C-sections. The obese older women were maybe. More than 69% of them had a C-section, though 55% of the older women at healthy weights did. Among the younger women, 47% of the obese and 28% of those at healthy weights had C-sections.
Older obese women were most likely to settlement once previously 37 weeks. The in the future delivery increases the risk of health problems in the baby.
Older obese women were three time as likely as older women at healthy weights to have gestational diabetes -- high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy. More than 21% of older obese women had it, compared to less than 7% of older women at healthy weights. Nearly 9% of younger obese women developed it, but less than 4% of younger, healthy-weight women did.
Obese women in both age groups were more likely to profit preeclampsia. In this condition, blood pressure rises and a tall level of protein is found in the urine. It can be dangerous if untreated. It was nearly twice as common in obese women as in the women at healthy weights.

Some of the differences are not surprising, says Suzanne Lubarsky, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, Ore. She reviewed the findings for blogger.

"The diabetes share isn't surprising, because we know older women who are obese are going to have the highest rate," she tells me.

The difference in the premature delivery rate was somewhat surprising, she says. "The C-section rate was somewhat surprising, although we know obesity is a risk factor for C-section."

The late buildup data will present much add-on promise for advice that Lubarsky says she already gives to women 40-benefit hoping to become pregnant. "Being at their ideal body weight [by now pregnancy] optimizes their pregnancy and reduces their risks and the risks to their babies," she says.

Barton reports receiving research grants from Alere San Diego and Beckman Coulter Inc. Both grants are for the investigation of tests for preeclampsia.