Your fertility naturally declines as you get older, which could make it harder for you to conceive. And starting a family later in life could pose greater risks for pregnancy complications. Experts say the best time to get pregnant is between your late 20s and early 30s.
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 becomes more rapid once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely for most women.
Ages 31 to 35
In your early 30s, the chances you'll be able to have a baby are still high. You still have a lot of high-quality eggs to offer, but your odds will start to decline steadily at this age. Your fecundity rate decreases gradually until age 32. At 37, it drops dramatically.
Women who become pregnant in their 30s and early 40s can have safe, healthy pregnancies, says Ellie Ragsdale, MD, director of fetal intervention at UH Cleveland Medical Center.
Women are most fertile and have the best chance of getting pregnant in their 20s. This is the time when you have the highest number of good quality eggs available and your pregnancy risks are lowest. At age 25, your odds of conceiving after 3 months of trying are just under 20 percent .
What's the best interval between pregnancies? To reduce the risk of pregnancy complications and other health problems, research suggests waiting 18 to 24 months but less than five years after a live birth before attempting your next pregnancy.
Geriatric pregnancy is a rarely used term for having a baby when you're 35 or older. Rest assured, most healthy women who get pregnant after age 35 and even into their 40s have healthy babies.
Median age for new moms rises to 30 in U.S.
They become quite independent as they reach 5-6 years of age, even wanting to help you with some of the chores! This is probably why most parents look at age 6 as the magical age when parenting gets easier.
If born before week 37, your baby is considered a “preterm” or “premature” baby. If born before week 28, your baby is considered “extremely premature.” Babies born between weeks 20 to 25 have a very low chance of surviving without neurodevelopmental impairment.
Perhaps the most significant benefits to starting a family young are the greater chances of conception — and lowered risk of miscarriage, pregnancy complications, gestational diabetes and birth defects — compared to older-than-average mums.
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.
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. Kalish says.
The researchers found that women who had live births had telomeres that were an average of 4.2 percent shorter than their counterparts with no children. This equates to around 11 years of accelerated cellular aging, said Anna Pollack, an epidemiologist at George Mason University and the lead researcher of the study.
“The ideal age to get married, with the least likelihood of divorce in the first five years, is 28 to 32,” says Carrie Krawiec, a marriage and family therapist at Birmingham Maple Clinic in Troy, Michigan. “Called the 'Goldilocks theory,' the idea is that people at this age are not too old and not too young.”
Having babies after 35 is safe
One of the biggest fears around pregnancy after 35 is the increased risk for complications during pregnancy or genetic disorders and other conditions that could affect the baby. But science shows that many healthy parents over 35 have healthy babies.
Age is one of the key factors that predict your ability to conceive. Your fertility starts to decline at age 30 and keeps on dropping steadily until you hit menopause. That said, it's not only possible to deliver a healthy baby after age 35, it's quite common.
Women in their early thirties are generally better off than women in their late thirties as ovarian reserve declines sharply in the late thirties. For example, a woman at 30 often has around 100,000-150,000 eggs in reserve. By 35, that number is likely around 80,000.
Smoking, drinking alcohol, or taking certain drugs during pregnancy. Having certain medical conditions, such as being obese or having uncontrolled diabetes before and during pregnancy. Taking certain medications, such as isotretinoin (a drug used to treat severe acne). Having someone in your family with a birth defect.
Results: A significant protective effect was seen with large doses of folic acid ( approximately 6 mg/d) and iron (150-300 mg/d of ferrous sulfate) during the first gestational month against Down's syndrome (adjusted odds ratio 0.4, 95% confidence interval 0.2 to 0.7 for both).
A 2-Year Age Gap
Sibling rivalry is strongest during these years and parents are often already struggling with a toddler who is developing a strong sense of identity and loves to use the word “No!” On the upside, a 2 year age gap works out pretty well as the kids get older.
Several studies agree that there is a positive association between delayed motherhood and longevity. A 2015 study showed that women who have their last child after age 33 are more likely to live to 95. Another study showed that having children later in life is “positively related to aspects of cognition later in life.”
Medium gap (two to four years)
With this gap, you'll have the lowest risk of having preterm birth and a low birth weight baby (Zhu, 2005).