Anyone who doesn’t shield their eyes from People Magazine or US Weekly in the supermarket line has probably noticed the prevalence of celebrities giving birth in their 40s. Tina Fey, Julianne Moore and Gwen Stefani are not alone. (See 40, Fabulous, and Fertile: 26 Celebrities Who’ve Given Birth After Turning 40.)
A May 2014 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms what the stars tell us — more and more women are having babies at an older age. And more specifically — more women are waiting longer to have children in the first place. (To continue with the celebrity theme, women like Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, and Nicole Kidman all became first-time moms after age 40.)
According to the CDC report, the average age of women at first birth has been on the rise for the last four decades, due in part to the increase in first pregnancies for women over 35. In fact, the first birth rate for women aged 40-44 more than doubled from 1990 to 2012.
And while one of our earlier blog posts pointed out that infertility in youth is more widespread than commonly believed, at the same time women conceiving babies in their 40s is becoming more common. Any way you cut it, the age of first-time mothers is increasing. At Collaborative Care, we recognize that there is no “typical case” and we help women in their 20s, 30s and 40s conceive babies.
