OLDER WOMEN giving birth run a much higher risk of emergency Caesarean section, even if pregnancies are not complicated, according to a new study led by Prof John Morrison and researchers at NUI Galway.
The new study published in the European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Reproductive Biologyanalysed the outcome for 45,000 mothers giving birth at University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG) between 1989 and 2005.
The detailed analysis of deliveries during that 17-year period focused on the maternal age at time of the baby’s birth, and the risk of emergency Caesarean section. It showed a marked increase in maternal ages among those taken for surgery for first-time deliveries.
When all other complex factors were analysed independently, advanced maternal age by itself exerted a “strong bearing” on the much increased risk of emergency Caesarean section observed over the duration of the research, the study noted.
Prof Morrison said the findings were the first of their type in Europe, in terms of the detail. A recently published study of Caesarean sections in Australia did not use the multiple logistic progression analysis applied by the NUIG team, and was therefore not as “robust”.
"The findings indicate that the uterus does not work so well in older women, when one takes out the standard factors for epidurals, inductions, etc," Prof Morrison told The Irish Times.
“There has been a lot of controversy over Caesarean sections, here and abroad, and their increasing frequency,” he said. “The confirmation that age is a key factor in surgery is not because obstetricians are taking an ageist approach. The clear message from this is that age has an impact on ability to deliver normally.”