Childbirth After Forty

As the average age for a woman to have her first child rises with each year the age that was once taboo is becoming the norm to have children. As we know there are many risks to giving birth after a certain age - but what is that age? We hear of women giving birth at forty, or even sixty and they are successful but what are the risks? Forty is the age that is often considered to be an age in which risks heighten. Although, we can all recall the woman last year who had given birth at the ripe age of sixty-seven.

With the average age increasing it seems to be general practice to have children late into your thirties and beyond. People are getting their lives together, before they bring another life into it.

We have to factor in that the average life expectancy for a woman in the United States is eighty-one years old. This should be taken into account when planning for your children. Let's talk about the risks and rewards of giving birth after forty.

The risks of birth defect increase after a certain age - "the risk of having a baby with Down syndrome rises from about 1 in 759 at age 30 to 1 in 302 at age 35, 1 in 82 at age 40."

For mothers to be thirty five and older, they are often offered genetic counseling so they are aware of all of the risks involved with the childbirth and the outcomes.

"35-year-old woman has a 1 in 250 chance of carrying a baby with Down syndrome at 12 weeks gestation. But the odds go down to 1 in 300 at 20 weeks - which is about when you might have amniocentesis - and to 1 in 356 at 40 weeks."

If you are of a healthy weight, and are generally healthy with regular periods than the chances of having a normal childbirth without complications are good.

The older you are when you become pregnant, the more likely you are to develop disorders that could be of danger to you and the baby such as diabetes, or high blood pressure.

"You're also at higher risk of developing certain complications during pregnancy such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, placental abruption (in which the placenta prematurely separates from the uterine wall), and placenta previa (in which the placenta lies low in the uterus, partly or completely covering the cervix)."

The largest hurdle though, may be to become pregnant in the first place. After thirty, fertility begins to decline and the rates of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies increase. There is also a higher chance of the baby being born under birth weight - which could substantially affect the health of the baby.