Intersection of Maternal Age and Parity with Pregnancy Outcomes in a Rural Health Centre in Nigeria: Implications for Training and Practice of Family Physicians

Background: The impact of biological factors on pregnancy outcomes is equivocal.

Objective: This study was aimed to examine the effect of maternal age and parity on obstetric and perinatal outcomes in Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, observational study of pregnant women at the Comprehensive Health Centre, Aluu in southern Nigeria. The WHO classifying form of the new antenatal care model was used in enrolling pregnant women registering for ante natal care at the study centre. Data were entered and analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences version 16.0. Association between the variables was determined using chi-square test with statistical significance set at P ≤ 0.05.

Results: Out of 410 pregnant women involved in the study, 379 (92.4%) completed it. Considering maternal age and obstetric outcomes, statistically significant association was observed between maternal age and delivery gestational age (p= 0.019), mode of delivery (p=0.02) and birth weight (p=0.047). There were 146 (38.5%) primips and 21(5.5%) grandmultips. Statistical significance was observed in the association of parity and birth weight (p=0.02) and foetal outcome (p=0.03) with a high incidence of low birth weight among primips (n=17; 11.6%) and higher perinatal mortality among grand multips (n=3; 14.3%). There was no maternal mortality. Teenage pregnancy encountered zero operative deliveries.

Conclusion: Maternal age is associated with preterm deliveries, low birth weight babies and operative delivery. Parity is associated with birth weight and foetal outcome. There was no maternal mortality and teenage pregnancy encountered zero operative deliveries.