Over 35 and expecting: Is it safer to give birth “early”?

Follow me at @hricciot Having a baby when you’re “older” can have some advantages—women may feel more secure with themselves, their relationships, or their careers. However, expectant moms 35 and older—and their babies—do face some increased pregnancy-related health risks. Probably the most dreaded is a stillbirth. Most often, the factor responsible for stillbirth occurs before labor. Some of the reasons a baby might die before birth include problems with the placenta, and women over 35 face increased risk for these complications. That’s why it isn’t unusual for doctors to recommend inducing labor a little early, usually about a week before the due date. For younger women, we often wait at least a week past the due date before helping labor along if it hasn’t started on its own. While there has been no conclusive proof that inducing labor prevents stillbirth, we worry so much about this potential loss that we want to do what we reasonably can to prevent it. And one of those things is not waiting too long for labor to start on its own. So why is inducing labor a big deal? One concern is that it may increase the chance that the delivery will end up as a cesarean. However, a British study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed, surprisingly (at least to me), that there was no difference in cesarean delivery rates when women over 35 who were having their first baby were induced in the week leading up to delivery. According to Neil Shah,...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Family Planning and Pregnancy Health Women's Health inducing labor Source Type: news