New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Women who take years to get pregnant are more likely to have difficult pregnancies and may be at higher risk for birth injuries, ABC News reported.

The New York City birth injury attorneys and the medical malpractice and wrongful death lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent patients and families coping with birth injuries or the tragic death of a newborn.

The Findland study, conducted by Dr. Kaisa Raatikainen and colleagues from Kuopio University Hospital also found that women who take a long time to conceive were at higher risk for having problems during pregnancy and labor, including pregnancy-related diabetes and infections of the membranes around the fetus.

Women take longer to get pregnant as they age; up to 85 percent of fertile woman under 35 will become pregnant within one year of trying, compared to just half of woman older than 35.

Doctors and medical professionals must take into account an expecting mother's age, health and risk factors. Failure to manage pregnancy or surgical errors during birth can lead to birth-defects, long-term physical and mental developmental issues and infant death.

The report, published in the December issue of Fertility and Sterility investigated 17,114 pregnancies delivered at Kuopio University Hospital between 1989 and 2007.

Nearly three-quarters of the women got pregnant within six months, 12 percent took six months to a year, 6 percent took between 1 and 2 years and 4 percent took longer than two years to become pregnant.

The longer it took a woman to get pregnant, the more likely she was to have had at least one prior miscarriage.

After adjusting for age, health and other risk factors, researchers found that the woman who took more than 2 years to get pregnant were 51 percent to 64 percent were more likely to have adverse outcomes, including premature birth and an unhealthy baby.