Introduction:

The incidence of newborns (NBs) of mothers of advanced maternal age has been increasing worldwide, with the complications that it entails.

Objective:

To identify neonatal complications associated with advanced maternal age.

Material and methods:

A prospective, cohort study was included in all the single NBs alive at the Hospital Español de México during 2016. NBs were classified into two groups according to maternal age; frequencies and percentages were calculated for discrete variables; means and standard deviation for continuous variables. Chi square (χ2) or Fisher exact and Student t were used to compare the groups.

Results:

1,586 women, 64.2% under 35 years old and 35.8% of advanced maternal age were included. We found hypertensive pregnancy disease in 5.2% (under 35 years mothers) versus 8.3% of elderly mothers, and gestational diabetes in 2.7% (under 35 years mothers) versus 4.6% of elderly mothers. The mean gestational age at birth was 38 weeks for newborns of non-elderly mothers, having a lower gestational age the children of elderly mothers do (37 weeks). Eight percent of the patients entered the neonatal intensive care unit, presenting mainly respiratory and infectious complications.

Conclusions:

It is important to take into account the maternal-fetal complications associated with advanced age to provide adequate prenatal and postnatal control in order to prevent some complications associated with advanced maternal age and achieve safe pregnancies.