Everything Older Women Want to Know about Pregnancy & Birth

Science & Sensibility interviews Rebecca Dekker about her new “Evidence Based Birth” post on the issues of pregnancy and birth in women aged 35 or more. The interview provides an overview of the article’s contents along with context as well as Dekker’s suggestions for older women contemplating pregnancy or already pregnant. The article itself summarizes and analyzes the research into pregnancy and birth in this age group, including likelihood of becoming pregnant, risks of pregnancy (genetic, miscarriage, stillbirth), factors influencing risk of stillbirth, the value of fetal surveillance testing, the pros and cons of inducing labor, and the relationship between increasing age and cesarean delivery. Of note, midwifery care decreased use of medical intervention without increasing adverse outcomes in babies, although the population was too small to detect differences in rare outcomes such as stillbirth.