The impact of maternal age over forty years on the caesarean section rate: six year experience at a busy district general hospital.

A retrospective study over a 6-year period was undertaken to determine the trend in age at booking for antenatal care at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and to investigate the relationship between maternal age at booking for antenatal care and mode of delivery. Between 2006 and 2011, there was an 80% increase in the number of women over the age of 40 years booking for antenatal care. The overall caesarean section rate in this cohort of women increased from 34.6% in 2006 to 53.7% in 2011, comprising of an increase in both elective and emergency caesarean sections. It appears that increasing maternal age may explain a significant proportion of the rising caesarean section rate in our unit.