French women often ignore perinatal risk factors. Among them, late pregnancies. One in five pregnant women is over 35.
Tobacco, obesity, and pregnancy at an advanced age, these potential health risks for mothers and children tend to become more frequent in France, as elsewhere in other European countries.
The latest European report on perinatal health reveals that, among pregnant French women, the percentage of women aged 35 and over is 19.2%. It places the country in an average position compared to other countries. But this percentage has clearly increased compared to 2003, when it reached 15.9%. Driving is however at risk, as revealed by Prof. François Olivennes, interviewed in April 2013 by why actor.
“We think that beyond 40, but especially beyond 43, 44, 45, there are more vascular complications, high blood pressure, more diabetes and premature deliveries; there are also more complications from childbirth itself, from cesarean sections, ”confided this obstetrician and specialist in infertility treatments. And to add: “it is above all arterial hypertension which entails risks for the child, with low birth weight and retro-placental hematoma which can cause the death of the baby; for the mother also with strokes and embolisms ”.
For Prof. François Olivennes, “it is very important that a woman who wants to have a child beyond 43, 44 years old does a cardiological check-up before any pregnancy. I think a 45 year old woman who is hypertensive, has heart trouble and wants to have a baby, is taking a big risk. Well monitored, at 40, you can have a pregnancy that goes very well, ”he concluded.
Another perinatal risk factor also forgotten by French women, obesity (Body Mass Index> 30) which still represents 9.9% of pregnant women in our country. “However, this is a low percentage compared to other European countries,” the report said. However, here again, it should be noted that this risk factor is becoming more frequent in France, since it was 7.4% in 2003.
Finally, the report also reveals that the percentage of French women who smoked during pregnancy was 19% in 2010. And according to recent statements by Marisol Touraine, this rate is even increasing. Indeed, according to 2013 figures from the national survey on the consumption of psychoactive substances, 24% of pregnant French women say they smoke on a daily basis. This is twice as much as the European average.
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