Asthma during pregnancy - a population based study

To study delivery outcome in women with asthma, using Swedish health regist ers. Women with asthma were identified in two ways: by information in inter views performed by midwives at the pregnant woman's first visit to antenata l care, and by linkage between a medical birth register and a hospital disc harge register, identifying women who had been hospitalized for asthma and also had a delivery. Births between 1984 and 1995 were studied. An increase d risk for preterm birth and low birth weight was seen, possibly co-varying with disease severity. Also a significant increase in pregnancies of more than 41 weeks duration was noticed. An increase in infant death but not in congenital malformations rate was observed. An association with preeclampsi a, gestational diabetes, and infant hypoglycemia was verified. Maternal ast hma appears to be a risk factor for preterm and postterm births and increas es the risk for some pregnancy complications.