Risk of Delaying Childbirth Is Small

Cautious Optimism

Joseph tells WebMD that older pregnant women who follow their doctor's advice can be "cautiously optimistic" that their baby will be born healthy.

But epidemiologist and pregnancy researcher Suzanne Tough, PhD, worries that women don't really understand the long-term risks of delayed childbirth or aren't being told about them.

She says older women are very aware that they may have a harder time getting pregnant and most know that their risk of having a child with Down syndrome is higher.

"But they often don't recognize that once they have achieved a pregnancy there is a higher rate of miscarriage, preterm and low-birth-weight deliveries, and multiple births," she tells WebMD.

Tough's own research suggests that delayed childbirth may be largely responsible for the increasing number of low-birth-weight and preterm babies, especially in urban areas. The implications of this increase reach far beyond the family, she says.

"These are children who may require extra support in school or who may require all kinds of interventions for years to come," she says. "When we talk from a health care perspective about how to tackle this rising low-birth-weight issue, we need to acknowledge that one of the primary risk factors is delayed childbirth."

SOURCES: Joseph, K.S. Obstetrics and Gynecology, June 2005; vol 205: pp 1410-1418. K.S. Joseph, MD, PhD, perinatal epidemiologist; associate professor, department of obstetrics and gynecology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Suzanne Tough, PhD, MSc, faculty of medicine, University of Calgary.