Health
There is no established rule once and for all when it is best to have a baby. Having a baby is a personal decision for everyone, which can be influenced by many factors.
Expectant moms and dads in adulthood think about financial stability, work and personal goals before deciding on a new family member.
But when it comes to fertility, age matters. On average, a woman under 30 years of age has a 95 per cent chance of becoming pregnant within a year without protected sexual intercourse. After 30 years, these chances are reduced by 3 percent every year.
See also: Childless stars: 10 celebrities who flatly refused to give birth
A 40-year-old woman has only 5 to 10 percent of conceiving a child naturally, and this probability is less than 5 percent by age 45.
Fertility in women
The reason is that every woman is born with a specific set of eggs in her ovaries. As we age, the number and quality of oocytes are significantly reduced.
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While still in the womb, the fetus has 7 million eggs. When we are born, we have about 1-2 million left. During adolescence, this number drops to 400,000.
By the age of 30, we lose almost 87 percent of our eggs, and by the age of 40, 97 percent of our eggs are gone. There are about 12,000 eggs left, and while you might think that's a lot, most of them are not viable, which increases the risk of miscarriage.
This doesn't mean you can't get pregnant naturally after age 35 or 40. You probably even have plenty of examples of women who gave birth at a later age. However, age cannot be overlooked if you are planning to start a family.
In fact, having children after 40 has become quite common. The number of first-parous mothers aged 40 to 44 almost doubled from the 1970s to the early 21st century.
Although many women are advised to give birth before the age of 35, in reality, many of them prefer to postpone childbirth until a later age. There are several reasons for this: the desire to build a career, settle down and live for yourself, and the lack of a suitable partner.
The risks of childbirth after age 40
Some complications for mother and child are more likely to occur later in life. This includes:
1. It's harder to get pregnant
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The biggest disadvantage of delaying pregnancy until age 40 is the fact that it will be more difficult for a woman to get pregnant.
The thing is that egg supply decreases significantly with age, and older eggs are more likely to have chromosomal abnormalities, increasing the risk of miscarriage and birth defects.
After 40, there is a sharp decline in fertility. For example, the chances of getting pregnant at 41 are much better than at 43.
If a 40-year-old woman is being treated for infertility, she has a 25 percent chance of getting pregnant with her own eggs, at 43, this figure drops to 10 percent, and 44 percent is only 1.6 per cent.
2. Risk of miscarriage
Older women are at increased risk of miscarriage early in pregnancy. For example, women under 30 have a 12% risk of miscarriage, and women over 35 years of age have a 25% risk of miscarriage.
After age 45, the risk of miscarriage is 90 percent.
3. Ectopic pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy that has occurred outside the uterine cavity. In women over 35, the risk of ectopic pregnancy is 4-8 times higher than that of younger women.
A higher risk of ectopic pregnancy is associated with the accumulation of risk factors over time, such as infections of the genitourinary system or problems with the fallopian tubes.
This complication causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, abnormal bleeding, but it can also be asymptomatic. As a rule, a woman needs surgery, as if left untreated, this can lead to internal bleeding.
4. Multiple pregnancies
The chances of getting pregnant with twins or having multiple pregnancies increase with age. And multiple pregnancies are often accompanied by a high probability of problems for both the mother and the child, which requires constant monitoring throughout pregnancy.
5. Diabetes during pregnancy
Women over 40 years of age are 3-6 times more likely to develop gestational diabetes (diabetes mellitus during pregnancy) than women aged 20-29. It goes away almost immediately after childbirth, but it can be a harbinger of diabetes at a later age and increases the risk of having a baby that is too large.
The risk of diabetes mellitus among pregnant women is 3 percent, while in women over 40 years it increases to 7-12 percent. This condition poses a threat of potential complications not only for the mother, but also for the baby during pregnancy and childbirth.
6. High blood pressure during pregnancy
The risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension is much higher in older mothers. This leads to a high risk of developing a condition such as preeclampsia, a complication accompanied by high blood pressure and damaging other organ systems, most often the kidneys.
Without appropriate treatment, preeclampsia is a threat to both the mother and the baby.
7. Complications of chronic diseases during pregnancy
As we age, problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are much higher.
If you have a chronic medical condition, you need constant monitoring during pregnancy so that the condition does not get worse. You may need to be hospitalized, have a caesarean section, or have a premature birth during pregnancy.
8. The partner's sperm cells also age
Do not forget about men. Although they are physically able to become fathers in their 60s and 70s, sperm quality also declines with age.
The older the man is, the more likely a child is to develop genetic defects, such as Down's syndrome, schizophrenia, and autism.
Child risk in women over 40 years of age
1. Chromosomal abnormalities
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The risk of chromosomal abnormalities increases with the age of a woman, especially after 35 years. The best-known anomaly during pregnancy is Down syndrome. The risk of Down syndrome in a child, depending on the mother's age, is:
at age 30:1 in 950 pregnancies
at age 35:1 in 350 pregnancies
at age 40:1 in 100 pregnancies
at age 45:1 in 30 pregnancies
2. Other anomalies
The risk of heart defects in a child in women over 40 years of age is 4 times greater than that of women aged 20-24. The likelihood of congenital clubfoot and diaphragmatic hernia (an abdominal hernia that allows the abdominal organ to move into the chest cavity) also increases.
3. Stillbirth
At a maternal age of 40 to 44, the risk of stillbirth is 3 times greater than that of women aged 25-29. Because of this, the baby will be watched even more closely at the end of pregnancy.
4. Preterm birth or low birth weight
Children born prematurely face breathing problems due to insufficient lung development. They are also more prone to problems such as infections, brain bleeding, and difficulty in regulating body temperature and glucose levels.
Premature babies are more likely to have hearing or vision problems and cerebral palsy, especially if they were born before 32 weeks of fetal development.
An interesting fact! Currently, the oldest mother in the world is Mangayamma Yaramati, a 74-year-old woman from India, who gave birth to twins conceived through IVF.
IVF risks for women over 40
And although IVF technologies allow women to become pregnant at almost any age, experts are concerned about the increased risk of various maternal health problems, ranging from heart diseases before the onset of tumors.
1. Cancer risk
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Although there are many women who can easily become pregnant after the age of 40, the older the woman is, the more difficult it is for her to conceive a child and the more often she has to resort to fertility treatment.
About a third of women over 35 years of age and half of all women over 40 seek help from a reproductive health specialist. In addition, the partner's age also affects the chances of getting pregnant.
Often in these cases it is necessary to resort to drugs for infertility and IVF (in vitro fertilization). But we must remember that any medication, including fertility drugs, has side effects and is associated with certain risks.
Experts believe that artificial insemination cannot lead to the development of cancer during pregnancy. However, IVF can increase the development of an existing tumor in the body. Do not forget that during pregnancy, serious hormonal changes occur, and a woman already receives high doses of hormones, in particular estrogen.
Danish scientists have been monitoring the health status of 600,000 women for 20 years, and 58,534 of them have undergone artificial insemination. They found that giving birth after artificial insemination after age 40 increases the risk of developing breast cancer by 65 percent.
To produce an egg for fertilization, women often take strong drugs to stimulate the ovaries. This increases the level of estrogen, a hormone that triggers the growth of breast tissue and can promote the growth of cancer cells.
As we age, the risk of developing breast cancer increases, and additional hormones can disrupt the natural aging of breast cells.
If a woman has breast cancer at an early stage, during pregnancy, an increased level of estrogen can accelerate the growth of the tumor.
2. Heart risk
Pregnancy, according to experts, can be compared with stress during a marathon, and the older a woman, the more often she has complications.
Doctors who are pregnant in women over 40 years of age are most concerned about pre-eclampsia, a complication whose symptoms are high blood pressure, which most often occurs on third trimester of pregnancy.
This condition occurs in only 3-4 percent of expectant mothers, but the risk rises to 5-10 percent in women over 40 and 35 percent if you're over 50.
In addition, pregnancy can trigger early health problems that may have appeared much later. Thus, a 50-year-old woman with borderline high blood pressure, who may not develop hypertension until the age of 60, may experience it during pregnancy. And this threatens with complications for both the future mother and the child.
Read also: 11 signs of a very prolific woman
There are also concerns that pregnancy can lead to heart problems. Most women gain weight during pregnancy and maintain it for some time after childbirth, and extra pounds increase the risk of developing heart disease.
Progesterone, a hormone that women receive during artificial insemination and is present in large quantities during pregnancy, can also trigger an increase in blood blood pressure and cholesterol.
This is not a problem for a healthy woman, but if you already have hypertension or high cholesterol, which is common in older women, it can lead to heart problems.
Benefits of giving birth after age 40
However, despite all the disadvantages of giving birth after 40 years, there are additional advantages of motherhood at an age.
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1. Increasing intellectual power
Having a baby later in life can sharpen your intelligence.
A study by the American Gerontology Community tested 830 middle-aged women to determine whether there is a link between intelligence and late childbirth.
They found that women who had their last child after 35 had better learning abilities and verbal memory. In addition, women who gave birth to their first child after the age of 24 were better at solving problems than those who did so at an earlier age.
2. Better emotional fitness
As a woman ages, of course, becomes more emotionally mature, and this has a positive effect on parenthood.
In a 2017 study published in the European Journal of Development, Dutch scientists monitored the psychosocial development of children aged 7, 11 and 15.
One group was born to mothers over 31 years of age and the other to mothers under 31 years of age. Researchers found that older mothers were less likely to scold and physically punish their children. In general, these mothers had better children behaved, were more sociable and emotionally healthy.
In other words, the calmer behavior of older mothers had a positive effect on their children.
3. Financial stability
A large number of studies support the theory that health is often linked to your financial situation. Women who have the opportunity to complete their education and advance professionally often earn more than those who have a child before starting their careers.
Older mothers' children also stay longer in education, perform better in exams and enter higher education institutions. In turn, a better financial situation has a positive impact on children's health throughout their lives.
4. Longevity
Some people think that having children at a later age means you don't have enough energy to keep track of them, or worse, you won't be able to live to see such important events in their lives like getting married and having grandchildren. However, science suggests otherwise.
In 2015, a study published in the journal Menopause found that women who gave birth after age 33 were twice as likely to live to 95 years of age as those with their last child was born before the age of 30.