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Postponement of childbearing has become increasingly common in the Western world, but risk for fetal death rises with advancing maternal age. Researchers used data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway from 1967 to 2006 to estimate risk for fetal death by maternal age at various times during gestation. Risk was compared before and after 1986, when ultrasonography was introduced into obstetric care in Norway.
Fetal death occurred in 1% of 2,182,756 births after 16 weeks' gestation. Older women (age, ≥40) were at the highest risk for fetal death at all gestational ages, but the most critical times were during early gestation, at term, and after term. Compared with risk for fetal death after week 36 of pregnancy in younger women (age range,…