|
22 June 2005
Older Mothers Prone To Ill Health And Unhappiness 
A greater number of women were ignoring the risks of becoming pregnant later in life, a scientist told the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. Michael de Swiet, from Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London, quoted UK statistics that showed 10 percent of women in their first pregnancy were over 35 compared to just 3 percent in 1988-90. Professor de Swiet said that declining fertility was an obvious risk for older mothers and fetal loss from miscarriage and still birth affect more than half of all pregnancies after the age of 42. Other complications for the older mother include a greater risk of hypertension, which occurs in 35 percent of women aged 50 or over having egg donation, and there is also an increased risk of maternal mortality. "In the UK between 2000 and 2002, about 1,100 children lost their mothers because of pregnancy", de Swiet said. "If these women delay their pregnancies till age 40 or more, they will have the worst recorded maternal mortality in Western Europe, 35 per 100,000 maternities compared to the UK average of about 10 per 100,000 women." He added that a woman who had more than one child and was over 35, had nearly a hundred-fold increased risk of dying from a pulmonary embolism compared to the risk of a first-time mother aged 20. Professor de Swiet advised that having a baby between 25 and 35 years of age was ideal; between 35 - 45, it was safe enough but there were risks of decreasing fertility, miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities; and after 45: "That is only for the healthy and wealthy", he said. During pregnancy, older mothers seemed to be particularly prone to what Professor de Swiet calls the "misery factor". "I am impressed by how tired and ill older mothers become, suffering from extreme breathlessness, postural hypotension, syncope and palpitations caused by nothing other than pregnancy", he said. Social factors need to be taken into account too. "Will a 66 year old woman live long enough to be a mother?" he asked, adding that it was not the responsibility of doctors to legislate or make policy statements on these kinds of issue. "What about the child? Is using donor egg and sperm to enable an elderly woman to become pregnancy just 'an elaborate, expensive, and grotesque form of adoption', or is it true that 'a woman who has not had a child has not led a complete life'? Someone needs to find some way of reconciling all these conflicting points of view and laying down a proper framework for doctors to work within", he concluded.
Talk About This Article In The Forum...
|
