??geriatric pregnancy

[Nel45]

So I’ve worked in maternity care across the country for nearly 30 years and never once have I come across the term ‘geriatric pregnancy’ being used in the NHS, Nor with my last 3 children born when I was 35-44. (Naturally conceived and born last year)
However just seen a BBC article referring to a mother who had a ‘geriatric pregnancy’ since when did this become an official term in the UK??

Yes ‘elderly primigravida’ definitely a term we used, ha yes personally I didn’t mind this term, being called elderly conjures up a sweet old lady you respect and just give the due special care to, geriatric on the other hand feels a much colder medical term

Crikey

I'm well selfish then as have had 3 children after the age of 35

Your 'opinion' is stupid - HTH

Each trust has their own set of guidelines but all the ones I’ve worked with only have special guidelines for women over 40. The assessment for whether a woman needs blood thinners has being over 35 as a risk factor though (if my maternity leave brain remembers rightly) but I think apart from that, the cut off for extra scans etc is over 40. My baby at 39 I was counted as low risk and no special extras at all, at 44 it was very different and lots of extra care.
Yes in America it seems they work on an over 35 cut off from what I’ve seen

Thank you!

It was written in my notes when I had my youngest at 35 It was never used in person, but certainly I had a glucose test because of my age at that point AMA may have been used.

My hospital told me recently prima gravida/ ama is mainly about having your first baby over 35. I talked about my third baby being born past. 35 and they were like oh no you’ve already had 2 you’re not as at risk. It’s when it’s your first over 35 we are more interested?!

I must have been incredibly lucky-I had my first child over 20 years ago when I was 37 and my second when I was 41 and my age was never mentioned. Oh, except by my GP who was the same age as me and whose children were grown up and who couldn’t get his head round the idea of having a baby at that stage in his life-but that was about him, not me. My age was not mentioned when discussing my delivery options or even when my bp went up a bit. Maybe I was so scary they didn’t dare!

I did think I was very old trying for a baby at 34 and we thought lots about the risks, pros and cons etc and knew there would be a chance it wouldn’t even happen for us. At 38 even more so and already having children we wouldn’t have pushed nature if it hadn’t happened. So for us then been blessed with a beautiful healthy baby at 44 has felt like a miracle 🥰 I do however feel especially now, that we owe it to her to try and look after our health the best we can

That’s how my pregnancy was referred to 15-16 years ago. It’s not new.

When I had my daughter in 2017, I saw the term on my notes and I was only 36!

You are wrong but maybe it's regional.
I was 38 when pregnant with my son in 2014 and my notes had geriatric pregnancy stamped on the outside of the file.
I didn't imagine it and asked the midwife as I knew I wasn't a young mother but geriatric seemed abit harsh. She said it was any mother over 35 years.

I remember tge phrase over twenty years ago but when I had my son in 2015 I was 37 and not once did anyone use that phrase.

I have had to have blood thinners this time at 36 but didn't at 32 as being over 35 was one of the metrics they used. Nothing else age based as far as I know.
I know friends who were over 40 had more stuff specifically because of their age.

Crikey then everyone I know is pretty much selfish!

It was used in my notes in 2017. I was 28 but it was my 6th baby. I asked the midwife about it at the time because I wasn't over 30 and she said something about me having an "old womb" for my age that had "worked hard".

So @renthead midwives like you can be as condescending sceptical as you flippin like, doesn't mean it hasn't happened!

Yes the guidelines don’t tend to differentiate much between first time and subsequent time new mothers, they just say over 40 (except for aspirin prophylaxis) but yes from clinical experience there is a big difference between a woman over 35 having their first baby and one who has had babies before. Even when looking in detail at many of the studies re risk of complications, risk of stillbirth etc then actually the risk is much higher among
first time older mothers than older mothers who have had babies before

Point of information-saying something is “just your opinion” doesn’t make any less shitty.

Wow! What an unkind thing to say.

Dsis had her first and only DC in the early nineties, shortly after her 30th birthday. We laughed when her pregnancy notes read geriatric primigravida.

@OldCottageGreenhouse

I'm 38 and currently pregnant with our first after years of failed infertility treatments. All scans and tests have come back healthy, and we are beyond thrilled and excited to finally welcome a child.

How am I selfish exactly?

😂🤣😅 I had dd at 35 and ds at 37. Both PG's no issues. Both births perfect.
(I had my first at 33.....high BP and ECS.....)
I'm the same mum to all 3 kids.....not sure what's selfish about me? Kids no health issues if that's what you are alluring to?

My boss in the 90's had a baby and the term was used on her clinical notes.

I was labelled ‘advanced maternal age’ at 36, 20 years ago.

We actually asked about this (first baby over 45).

We were told in our London trust that:

• geriatric referred to over 35 and hadn’t been used in that trust “for years” as most mothers in that area were over 35
• about half their mums were over 40 (looking around the waiting room I would say more like 40%)
• about ten per cent were over 45
• they had several over 50s every year

So I think it depends where you are. In our corner of London there would be no point stamping anything on the notes of mums over 35 as that would be most of them. But of course they followed the AMA guidelines for over 40s.

It’s weird because I was pregnant in my late 30’s (recently) and made a comment to midwife about being “geriatric”. She was almost annoyed and made it clear they do not use terms like that. I am just an ageless pregnant woman essentially.
Yet friends from the same area claim they were referred to as geriatric. Tbh, it’s just a word. I don’t really care