More and more would be moms in the US are at a higher risk of birth complications and the reasons attributed for the mounting trend is higher age, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Pregnant patients of advanced maternal age (AMA) are more prone to gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, placenta previa and intrauterine growth restriction, which is directly associated with a higher rate of stillbirth. The scholars also discovered that fetal testing at 38 weeks gestation has the greatest impact at reducing stillbirth rates in older women. To verify whether AMA was an independent risk factor for stillbirth and when fetal testing would be most beneficial for reducing stillbirth rates, the researchers carried out a cross-sectional study using the United States CDC perinatal mortality database. The database is made up of 11,061,599 singleton deliveries between 1995 and 1997. The women in the study were between 15 to 44 years of age who were at least 37 weeks pregnant. Our results support routine antenatal testing in those women who are over age 40, beginning at 38 weeks gestation, said Mert Ozan Bahtiyar, MD, this will help identify women who are most at risk for stillbirth.
