Increased birth risks for older pregnant women

by Eilish O'Regan ©Independent.ie
The average age of first-time mothers in Ireland is now around 30 years but what about older women? The most up-to-date figures from the Central Statistics Office for April to June last year show 869 women over the age of 40 years registered births during that time.
It comes as a new study has now shed light on what happens to these older mothers once it's time to deliver their baby. The study carried out by researchers at the National Maternity Hospital and the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin compared 171 older women with 181 25-year-olds.
The findings revealed that the caesarean-section rate for older women was nearly twice (39.3pc) as high for women over 40 than the younger mothers (17.7pc). It also showed that the instrumental delivery rate for the older women was 36pc compared to 18pc for the 25-year-olds.
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