 These factors include things like maternal age and obesity all the way to things like socioeconomic status along with many others.Maternal age hasn't been shown to have a huge impact on prevalence rates, but when there has been a relationship identified, older mothers along with very young mothers are at an increased risk.While maternal age may not have a huge impact, mothers that have a body mass index greater than 29 double the risk of their child having an NTD.