Researchers at the University of Montreal used administrative birth-related data files from three Quebec province data registries to study approximately 7,400 women born preterm and 16,700 matched controls born at term, all of whom had either a live birth or stillbirth between 1987 and 2008. Women born before 23 weeks' gestation and those born to multiple birth (>3) pregnancies were excluded from the analysis. Of the women born preterm, 554 were born before 32 weeks' gestation and 6,851 were born between 32 and 36 weeks' gestation. Compared with women born at term, the likelihood of pregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, or eclampsia, was nearly two times greater for mothers themselves born before 32 weeks' gestation. Pregnancy complications among mothers born between 32 and 36 weeks' gestation were only slightly more common (1.14-fold) than among mothers born at term. The analysis in this study took into account several other maternal conditions known to increase risk of pregnancy complications. As in previous studies, the mothers who were born small-for-gestational-age in this study (either preterm or term) had a higher risk of complications during pregnancy than mothers born at a size appropriate for gestational age. Other factors known to affect risk of pregnancy complications, including lower education level, chronic hypertension and type 2 diabetes, were also more frequent among the mothers born preterm. However, the increased risk of pregnancy complications associated with decreasing gestational age was present even after accounting for all of these factors in the analysis.
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