Objective To compare birth outcomes and maternity care use in 1991 and 2008 by age among primiparous Finnish women.Design Register-based study.Setting Nationwide Medical Birth Register.Population All primiparous women in 1991 (n = 24 765) and 2008 (n = 23 511).Methods Women aged 35-39 and ≥40 years were compared with women aged 20-34 years in 1991 and 2008, using logistic regression to adjust for women's background.Main outcome measures Maternity care: prenatal visits, hospitalisation during pregnancy, labour induction, delivery mode, long postpartum hospital stay; and birth outcomes: birthweight, preterm birth, Apgar scores, intensive/observation unit, respiratory care, perinatal death.Results In both years, older women's deliveries were more often induced, instrumental, or by caesarean section. In 2008 compared with 1991, hospitalisations were lower and instrumental deliveries and labour induction were higher in older women. A significant decrease in adjusted odds ratios (OR, 95% confidence intervals) between 1991 and 2008 among women aged 35-39 was found for preterm birth (1.47, 1.18-1.84 versus 0.96, 0.86-1.07) and for intensive/observation unit (1.73, 1.47-2.05 versus 1.21, 1.07-1.37) and, among women aged ≥40 years, for intensive/ observation unit (3.14, 2.30-4.29 versus 1.64, 1.31-2.07). The risk for perinatal death (1.66, 0.60-4.60 versus 2.69, 1.07-6.79) was higher in 2008 than in 1991 among women aged ≥40.Conclusions In 2008, older primiparous women still used more maternity care, had more interventions, and poorer birth outcomes than younger women, regardless of care advances. Additional risks declined among women aged 35-39 but not among aged ≥40.Keywords Advanced maternal age, birth outcomes, maternity care use, primiparous women, register study.Please cite this paper as: Klemetti R, Gissler M, Sainio S, Hemminki E. Associations of maternal age with maternity care use and birth outcomes in primiparous women: a comparison of results in 1991and 2008 in Finland. BJOG 2014121:356-362.
IntroductionIn 1991 in Finland, older primiparous women had more problems during pregnancy and childbirth, their infant outcomes were worse, and they used more antenatal services than younger primiparous women.1 Since then, the childbearing population has become older and delayed childbearing has become normalised. In Finland, the average age for the first birth was 26.5 years in 1987 and 28.2 years in 2010, and first births to women aged over 35 increased from 5.3% of all first births in 1987 to 10.1% in 2010.2 The proportion of women having their first baby at age 40 or older increased from 12% in 1987 to 20% in 2010.3 Similar trends can be found elsewhere in Europe, the USA and Canada. [4][5][6][7] In Finland, almost all pregnant women (99.7% in 2011) use antenatal care, 2 which is provided in primary health care by public health nurses, midwives and general Maternal medicine practitioners, and by obstetricians and midwives at delivery hospitals during outpatient visits. The average number of prenatal visits was 16 in 2...