The effects of the socioeconomic status on the perinatal outcome of grand multipara.

Grandmultiparity has been considered as an obstetric hazard both to the mother and the fetus. Since high paritius tend to be more common in the lower socioeconomic groups, the effect of the socioeconomic status on perinatal outcome was evaluated in this study. This survey covers all the deliveries in Israel (22,815) in a 3 month period. The 1542 grand-multiparous women were divided into two groups: low socioeconomic group (947) and high socioeconomic group (595). Perinatal mortality and low birth weight were found to be in correlation with low socioeconomic status but not with grand multiparity. Maternal diseases complicating pregnancy were found to be significantly more common for grand multipara for both socioeconomic groups. This study shows that the grave association of parity and mortality found for the total population was due to the predominance of parturients of low socioeconomic class in the high birth order group.