The number of women postponing childbirth until an advanced age is increasing. Our aim was to study the outcome of labor in nulliparous women =40 years, compared with women 25-29 years, after both spontaneous onset and induction of labor.
The nationwide population-based Swedish Medical Birth Register was used to study the perinatal outcome in nulliparous women with a singleton, term (gestational weeks 37-44), live fetus in cephalic presentation and a planned vaginal delivery from 1992 to 2011. We included 7796 nulliparous women =40 years and 264 262 nulliparous women 25-29 years. Prevalence and risk of intrapartum cesarean section, operative vaginal delivery, obstetric anal sphincter injury and a 5-minute Apgar score