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Pregnant women at both extremes of child-bearing age face special risks for complications, though the risks differ between the very young and the very old. In a retrospective cohort study of patient records from 2000 to 2011 at a large urban maternity hospital in Ireland, investigators explored associations between maternal age and birth outcomes.
Of 36,916 nulliparous women who delivered, 3.3% were ≤17 at admission and 1.7% were ≥40. Compared with women in the 20- to 34-year-old comparator group, mothers aged ≤17 were more likely to be unmarried, to have unplanned pregnancies, to initiate prenatal care late, and to smoke during pregnancy. Mothers aged ≥40 were more likely than comparator women to initiate prenatal care early, be of higher s…