Jahnavi Sarma
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Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Published : September 5, 2019 8:56 PM IST
Pregnant women may face more severe respiratory complications if they get infected with COVID. © Shutterstock
Thanks to the pressures of modern lifestyle, more and more couples are delaying parenthood. While this may be fine for a man, it is not always so for a woman. Pregnancy after 35 carries certain risks that require special attention. Some of these risks may be miscarriage, premature delivery, stillbirth, gestational diabetes, chromosomal abnormalities and foetus growth retardation.
You also become less fertile as you age. So, if you delay your pregnancy, infertility may be a real problem too. All women are born with a fixed number of eggs. During ovulation, around 14 days before your period, you release one egg. Therefore, as you grow older, you have less eggs. Another problem is that the eggs that you do have may not get easily fertilised. If you are unable to become pregnant even after trying for more than 6 months, consult your doctor. You may need to go in for fertility treatment.
But this doesn't mean that you should just forget about having a baby. Thanks to the advances in modern medicine, you can now safely get pregnant and have a healthy baby well after you are in your thirties. All you have to do is take certain precautions.
According to researchers from the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference, pregnant women aged 40 and older are at greater risk of ischemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, heart attack and death from cardiovascular disease. In fact, they say that consequences of a delayed pregnancy may stretch years into the future.
Researchers found that all the risks, except for haemorrhagic stroke, were explained by well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol that is common in older pregnant women. A research published in The Journal of Physiology also says that older women are more likely to face birth complications.
Let us look at some common problems that you and your child may face in pregnancy after 35.
This happens when blood pressure shoots up and this affects the functions of the kidneys and liver. Preeclampsia usually happens after the 20th week of pregnancy or right after pregnancy. Symptoms are changes in vision and severe headaches. A test may reveal the presence of protein in urine. If you're older than 40, you have a higher risk of preeclampsia than a younger woman.
An older woman runs the risk of giving birth to a baby with Down syndrome. At the age of 25, a woman's risk of having a child with this condition is 1 in 1064. But by the time she reaches her early 40s, the risk goes up to 1 in 53. After the age of 45, the risk of giving birth to a baby with this disorder is 1 in 19. Nature Communications published a study that says that older mothers have a heightened risk of giving birth to children with congenital anomalies that are characterised by abnormal chromosome numbers.
The risk of miscarriage and giving birth to stillborn babies also increases as a woman age. In fact, BMJ published a study that says risk of miscarriage for women in their 40s is around 74 per cent. Researchers think that this could be due to declining quality of eggs. Another study published in PLOS ONE says that pregnant mothers aged 40 and over may have an increased risk for preterm birth, regardless of confounding factors. Researchers also say that a maternal age of 30-34 years is associated with the lowest risk of prematurity.
If you are above the age of 35 years, you have a higher risk of giving birth to a stillborn child. A study at Yale University found that pregnancy at age 40 and beyond is an independent risk factor for intrauterine foetal demise or stillbirth. But, at the same time, researchers also say that foetal testing at 38 weeks of gestation has the greatest impact at reducing stillbirth rates in older women.
This is also known as a caesarean birth. It means your baby is born through surgical intervention. Like any surgical procedures, this too has its risks like infection, bleeding and adverse reaction to anaesthesia. As you age, you may have more complications in pregnancy that may make a c-section necessary.
So, you are pregnant, and you are also over the age of 35. Who says you can't enjoy the anticipation of those 9 long months? Just take precautions, consult your doctor regularly and read our tips for being safe in pregnancy after 35.
Consult your doctor. Depending on your overall health condition, he may recommend pre-natal supplements like folic acid. This will prevent neural tube birth defects like spina bifida, a condition in which the tissue over the baby's spinal cord doesn't close.
Make sure your blood sugar levels and blood pressure remain normal. If you have thyroid imbalance, go for regular check-ups. As you age, you may have a few more health complications that a younger woman won't have. This may make your pregnancy complicated. Always be in touch with your doctor and follow instructions to the letter.
You cannot afford to be obese in a pregnancy after 35. Lose weight immediately or you may have a difficult time during labour and delivery.
Be sure to have nutritious food. Plan your meals in such a way that each meal includes all the essential nutrients. Be sure to eat a lot of spinach, beans, lentils and sunflower seeds for that extra dose of folic acid.
Exercise, practise yoga, go for a walk. A sedentary lifestyle in not for you if you are older and pregnant. You need to exercise regularly to avoid complications.
Sleep is important. Make sure you sleep for at least 7 hours every night. This is good for both you and your unborn child. A study at University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences says that poor sleep quality and quantity during pregnancy can disrupt normal immune processes and lead to lower birth weights and other complications. The same study also says that women with depression are more likely than non-depressed women to suffer from disturbed sleep and to experience immune system disruption and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
