Dr Anthea Lindquist
MBBS DPhil(Oxon) FRANZCOGAnthea is an obstetrician and gynaecologist who trained under a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University to become a peri...
What is perinatal epidemiology?
Many important questions in maternity care can only be answered by studying health information collected from large populations of pregnant women and linking these characteristics to birth and paediatric outcomes. An example of the use of the epidemiological approach includes identifying the association between increasing maternal age and stillbirth. While older mothers are often considered very healthy, the analysis of data from large populations of pregnant women clearly identifies increasing maternal age as a risk factor for stillbirth. This information helps us guide clinical practice, because we know to watch babies of older mothers more closely at the end of pregnancy, and to consider delivering them a bit earlier, before the risk of stillbirth rises further.
