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.
Not necessarily. If you had a straightforward pregnancy and birth last time, and you're fit and healthy, you and your baby are likely to be fine this time, too. Even so, there are a few things you should be aware of. Unfortunately, the risk of miscarriage does increase with age.
Risks for chromosome abnormalities by maternal age
The risk of chromosomal abnormality increases with maternal age. The chance of having a child affected by Down syndrome increases from about 1 in 1,250 for a woman who conceives at age 25, to about 1 in 100 for a woman who conceives at age 40.
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).
Emotional maturity and financial stability are two of the greatest advantages for women who choose to have a baby in their 40s. Plus, spouse or partner relationships are likely to be stable as well. In addition, there is the surprising boost in brain power that can come from becoming a mother later in life!
A woman's peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s. 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.
After age 35, there's a higher risk of pregnancy-related complications that might lead to a C-section delivery. The risk of chromosomal conditions is higher. Babies born to older mothers have a higher risk of certain chromosomal conditions, such as Down syndrome. The risk of pregnancy loss is higher.
Most women over 40 have healthy pregnancies and babies. However, it can sometimes take longer to get pregnant and some people experience complications.
Pregnancy in your 40s is potentially more complicated. The healthier you are at the beginning, the less likely you are to experience complications. But even healthy women can have complications in pregnancy. Women in their 40s also have a higher chance of having multiples, such as twins or triplets.
Having Babies After 35 Is Safe
And while it's true that conceiving after 35 comes with an increased risk of complications—like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, chromosomal abnormalities, and even miscarriage or stillbirth—many people go on to deliver healthy babies.
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.
But as people get older, they face an increased risk of medical issues that can potentially complicate their pregnancy. 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.
The U.S. National Birth Defects Prevention Study found that women greater than age 40 are at increased risk of having babies with multiple types of heart defects, genital abnormalities, skull deformities, and esophageal malformations.
Eat a balanced, nutritious diet, lose weight if you are overweight, and take a prenatal vitamin that has at least 400 micrograms of folic acid. You should have a full medical exam before you become pregnant. Tell your doctor that you are planning to become pregnant and ask about potential health risks.
Women older than 40 are more likely to deliver a low-birth-weight or preterm baby. Stillbirth rates are also higher, and studies have shown that children born to older mothers may be at slightly increased risk of type 1 diabetes. Your partner's sperm may be older, too.
Research suggests that an age gap of 27 to 32 months may be associated with the best health outcomes for mother and child. In terms of sibling relationship, siblings who are closer in age tend to fight more but are also closer which may have positive benefits for social skills.
Having adequate savings can set your new family up for financial success. Usually, this takes the form of an emergency fund, which financial experts suggest should consist of anywhere between three to six months of living expenses. Add a baby into the equation and that can be more than you needed before.
How many eggs does a woman have at 40? By the time a woman reaches 40, she'll be down to about 18,000 (3% of her pre-birth egg supply). Although the chances of conception are lower, this does not mean it is impossible to conceive at this age.
By age 40, a woman's chance is less than 5% per cycle, so fewer than 5 out of every 100 women are expected to be successful each month. Women do not remain fertile until menopause. The average age for menopause is 51, but most women become unable to have a successful pregnancy sometime in their mid-40s.
By 40, less than half of a woman's eggs are considered normal. Egg quality is largely determined by the ovarian environment that the eggs spend their final 90 days of development in; women in their 40s generally have a poor ovarian environment for producing high-quality eggs.
Older eggs are more likely to accumulate errors in their DNA during that division process, leading to genetically abnormal eggs. Once a cell's DNA is degraded, it can't be fixed medically or “healed.” In other words, once an egg becomes abnormal, it can't become normal again—egg quality cannot be improved.
Possible benefits of a 3-year age gap
According to some research, you may have the lowest risk of labor complications when you have your second baby around three years after your first. Pregnancy may carry less risk for you and your baby.