It used to be a big deal for a woman to have her third or fourth child at 35. Now more women are having babies in their late 30s and even 40s. Today, women may want a few more life experiences under their belts before they start a family.
While delivering at age 35 and older is officially considered “advanced maternal age,” Dr. Kalish notes that in reality, there's no “magic number” for being at-risk for complications. “A healthy 38-year-old could have an easier pregnancy than a 20-year-old who has multiple medical issues,” Dr.
31.9% for women age 35 to 37. 22.1% for women age 38 to 40. 12.4% in women age 41 to 42.
Success rates decline even more rapidly in your early 40s. Though plenty of mums over the age of 35 have healthy pregnancies, you do have increased risk of ongoing health conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. These conditions can affect how well your pregnancy and birth goes.
Pregnancy in Your 40s
If you get pregnant after 35 years old, experts call this an “advanced maternal age” pregnancy. But it's still possible to get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby in your 40s. Childbirth at older ages has become more common too. Since the 1990s, birth rates in people aged 40-44 have gone up.
By age 30, fertility (the ability to get pregnant) starts to decline. This decline happens faster once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely.
At 37-38 years, even healthy women will have around 25,000 of their eggs but by then the quality of these eggs also becomes a concern.
The data in the graph above shows that:
Women under 38 in our IVF program have acceptable live birth rates even with only 3 – 6 eggs, do better with more than 6 eggs, and do best with more than 10 eggs. Women 38-40 and 41-42 years old have low live birth rates with low egg numbers.
The study published by the University of St. Andrews and Edinburgh University in Scotland found that women have lost 90 percent of their eggs by the time they are 30 years old, and only have about 3 percent remaining by the time they are 40.
Older women are more likely to miscarry or have a stillbirth. They have a greater chance of developing gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and of delivering a baby who is very small. Then there can be problems with labor, resulting in a higher chance of cesarean birth.
It's true that pregnant people over age 35 are labeled as having "advanced maternal age. But despite common misconception, they can still have smooth gestations and healthy babies.
Natural birth over 35 is possible!
And not only is it possible, but older moms may have some advantages as well. Women over 35 may be more educated, more financially stable, and have a stronger sense of emotional readiness for motherhood.
Down syndrome occurs in people of all races and economic levels. The risk increases with the mother's age (1 in 1250 for a 25 year old mother to 1 in 1000 at age 31, 1 in 400 at age 35, and about 1 in 100 at age 40). However, 80% of babies with Down syndrome are born to women under age 35 years.
So as you get older, you have fewer and fewer eggs, and the eggs you have aren't easily fertilized by a man's sperm. All this makes it harder for you to get pregnant. If you're older than 35 and have been trying for 6 months to get pregnant, tell your health care provider.
Furthermore, babies delivered electively at 37 weeks are four times more likely to end up in the neonatal intensive care unit or have serious respiratory troubles than babies born at 39 weeks or later; babies who arrive at 38 weeks are twice as likely to have complications.
For women of 39 years of age, chances are further halved compared to the 36-year-old. In some cases, egg quality is better than expected from the woman's age, but in some cases unfortunately worse.
This proportion rises to ~50% by age 37-38 and to over 70% at age 40 and beyond.
If your menstrual cycle lasts 28 days and your period arrives like clockwork, it's likely that you'll ovulate on day 14. That's halfway through your cycle. Your fertile window begins on day 10. You're more likely to get pregnant if you have sex at least every other day between days 10 and 14 of a 28-day cycle.
In addition to its well-established role in neural tube defect prevention, research suggests folate plays an important role in promoting egg quality, maturation and implantation.
A woman is born with all her eggs. Once she starts her periods, 1 egg develops and is released during each menstrual cycle.