The elderly primigravida.

A five-year review of 127 elderly patients (35 years of age and over), in their first pregnancies, defines the risk to the fetus in terms of perinatal death and neonatal morbidity. With the equivalent of a perinatal mortality rate of 94/1,000, an 11 per cent incidence of small-for-dates infants, and a neonatal morbidity rate of 18 per cent, there would still appear to be a need for an increased awareness of the fetal risks in this group and an increased emphasia on their prevention. Areas of management in prenatal care and labor which might reduce these figures are defined.