Pregnancy after 35: a systematic review of the literature

uma revisão sistemática da literatura

Abstract

Late pregnancy requires more attention from health professionals, once there may be more risks involving the woman, the fetus and the newborn babies. There is a lack of studies on the subject, as well as reports and conflicting data in some studies, justifying the proposal to draw up a bibliography of articles available in databases on pregnancy after 35, between the years 1990-2008. We selected 74 articles considering type of study, focus, research subjects, type of publication, approach, origin and language of publication. The majority of the articles come from PUBMED (91.9%), published in English (90.5%), from 2003 (47.3%), in the form of abstracts (74.3%), experiments (82.4 %), quantitative (83.8%), of international origin (95.9%), addressing the woman as a subject of research (53.9%). It is evident that the event of late pregnancy is a reality on the rise in the world and there is a growing interest in the subject, but the focus is primarily biological (58.9%). In this specific series, there is no consensus regarding the "maternal age "in the development of a high risk pregnancy; pregnancy at any age can be accompanied by unfavorable conditions for both woman and the fetus, depending on health conditions and any context involving the conception and its outcome. There is need for more comprehensive studies, considering the social, family and cultural environment, to provide quality care to the women and the family, and also prepare the health services to give proper support to this "new public".