Above Forty Mothers Put Babies at Heart Risk

Women who give birth to babies while they are in their mid-forties might be putting their babies at increased risk of death; a new study has found that such babies are more prone to fatal heart problems within the first year.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Miami and involved US mothers. Spread over a period of five years, the study involved more than eight million births. It was found that women over the age of 30 who become pregnant are four times more likely to have high blood pressure than those below the age of 30. They are also at twice the risk of developing diabetes. Both these conditions can be extremely harmful to the health of their babies; particularly the heart.

The researchers found that women over the age of 45 are three times more likely to have a Caesarean than those in their early 30s. Such women are also twice as likely to give birth prematurely.

Babies born through a Caesarean were found to be twice as likely to die in the first month. They also found that premature babies tend to succumb within the first few weeks of life. One in ten babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy develops a permanent disability such as lung disease, cerebral palsy, blindness or deafness.

The study findings, published in the journal Human Reproduction and outlining the health dangers of delayed motherhood, come as a jolt to the growing trend of women preferring motherhood later in life. Nearly half of the 720,000 births each year in the US are to women aged 30 or above, while the birth rate for over-45s has doubled in the last decade with 1,177 babies born in 2005.

IVF expert Geeta Nargund, Head of Reproductive Medicine at St. George’s Hospital in London, believes it is important women are made aware of the risks of putting off motherhood. She feels many women are forced into late pregnancy on account of career or financial circumstances.

“A lot of women we see in their early 40s never thought they would end up in a fertility clinic,” she added. “There are a lot of social factors involved. As a nation, we have to address the socio-economic factors that lead to women leaving it too late."

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