There are risks that we take every single day. Some we don’t even think about anymore because they’re so commonplace, like driving your car to work. With that you are choosing to put yourself at risk of physical harm in the chance of being injured from a traffic accident.
There are similar risks with pregnancy and having children that we also know, like the risk that your baby may miscarry, or have a genetic condition. But we move forward and conceive anyway because the level of certain risks are SO low that we don’t consider them.
Image courtesy of riskmanagementmonitor.com
But did you know that your maternal age is a big factor in MANY risks to you and your baby that automatically increase? There are many pregnancy risks after age 35 that you may not be aware of.
Yes, we all hear about the latest the greatest celebrity undergoing fabulous fertility treatments so they can conceive their child, all at age 40+ with no problems. Sure, this happens and many babies are born healthy and full of life that way. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But what you don’t read about in the articles are the risks those celebrity parents took in order to get their child in the first place. I’m not going to discuss fertility treatments and techniques here, rather the fact that the reason most of those parents have to undergo such expensive procedures is because of the difficulty conceiving in the first place….and WHY.
Pregnancy Risks After Age 35 - Not A Short List
Now remember that ALL of these risks are present in you and me from the get go, no matter what our age, race, health, social status, whatever. They just EXIST because they come with life and biology isn’t always perfect. Things can go wrong, whether by our own addition or not. It’s the things we CHOOSE to do that add to the cascade.
- It’s harder to get pregnant because your egg quantity and quality is less than before and dramatically decreases as time goes on. This is just our standard issue when we’re born as females. Unlike men that get fresh sperm constantly, we only have a limited number of egg cells right from birth. Then over time they sit there and wait, and wait, and gradually degrade from waiting, making conception less and less a possibility.
- Your chances of having twins and multiple births goes up, ESPECIALLY when using reproductive technology. It’s just the science. This leads to more strain on the babies and mother because there’s MUCH more life inside you that’s fighting for limited resources.
- Conditions that are from chromosome abnormalities are MUCH more likely, such as Down Syndrome, Edward’s Syndrome, Patau’s Syndrome. (I talk about them more below.)
- You are more likely to develop high blood pressure and gestational diabetes just as a normal factor of aging. Like a middle aged person is at higher risk for such than a young twenty-something-same idea here, just exacerbated because of a pregnancy.
- Your baby is more likely to have a low birth weight or be premature, which we all know leads to months in the hospital and a lifetime increased risk of many health problems that I can’t even list fully.
- During your labor and delivery, you’re more likely to develop complications that may require a cesarean. Many, many factors just from life in general play into this.
(The three main studies/articles that I referenced for these studied outcomes: 1 - Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 105, Issue 6, June 2005. 2 - Obstetrics & Gynecology, Biostatistics Branch and Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2004. 3 - Fertility & Sterility, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, 2014.)
The one thing that most mothers seems to worry about the most is the likelihood that their child will have Down Syndrome.
My Risk Of Having A Down Syndrome Baby
There are actually a few other conditions not many people know about that have similar mechanisms and causes in kind with Down Syndrome. Here’s where we get super scientific but I’ll try to keep it simple for you.
First of all, Down Syndrome is caused when there is an abnormal chromosome number in your baby’s cells. We get half of our chromosomes from mom and half from dad. So a normally functioning cell has two copies of each chromosome. (Chromosomes are simply our DNA wound up into nice little formations.)
But when they don’t split equally, you can have three copies of a chromosome or just one copy, instead of two. This causes all sorts of problems.
Most embryos with chromosome issues naturally miscarry and don’t grow into fully functioning babies. But there are, of course, some that pull through and make life work.
- Down Syndrome is a condition where there are three copies of chromosome number 21. It’s actually more common than I thought, 1 in 700 children in the US have it.
- Edward’s Syndrome is having a third copy of chromosome 18, occurring in about 1 of every 5,000 births.
- Patau’s Syndrome is where an extra copy of chromosome 13 is present; more rarely in 1 of 16,000 newborns.
All of these conditions cause a number of growth and learning abnormalities in children. You can read more about them in the links above.
Here you can see the relative risk of having a trisomy (third copy of a chromosome) in your baby based on your age. And you can see why 35 becomes the default number.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia commons.
What Can I Do About Them?
Some of these things you can’t even bat an eye at because they are completely out of your control. Others, you can have a great impact upon reducing said risk.
| Risk Factor | How To Reduce Risk |
| Egg quality/quality | In the past it was believe that you cannot do anything to change this. If you find you are not conceiving after a year of trying, talk with your doctor because in vitro methods may be your only option. |
| Multiple Births | Conceiving naturally has lower likelihood of this occurring than using intervening technology. |
| Chromosome Abnormalities | Simply choose to conceive between age 26 and 37 for your statistically best bet. Beyond that, there’s not much else you can do. |
| High Blood Pressure/Gestational Diabetes |
|
All of the above help with preventing a low birth weight or premature baby as well. But sometimes there’s not much you can do either depending on your individual circumstances.
I know a gal that has MS with three children. I’m not sure if she was diagnosed at the time of her births or not, but it’s considered a factor for her.
With all three of her children, she had pre-eclampsia and naturally went into labor during her six month of pregnancy, through no increased fault of her own. So with her third child, she prepared and expected to have that baby early, as she did.
So sometimes it is just a genetic thing, or some other factor that is beyond our control.
I Know Something Runs In My Family
Such as the case with my friend that seems to have a familial or genetic factor working against her for having preterm babies, you may be aware of Down Syndrome or other complications that run in the family-maybe you don’t know. Ask your mother and other relatives about extended family or details regarding what relative risks may run in your family.
If you know something is present, like a genetic abnormality, you can test for your likelihood of it being present in your baby during your pregnancy. You may even have genetic testing between you and your partner if it is something you may both be carriers for, increasing the likelihood that your children will receive that same.
But that discussion is FAR out of the scope of this post and you MUST work with your doctor there. But you cannot learn enough about those factors as risks for your family until you FIRST talk with your OWN family.
For example….I know that clinically diagnosed anxiety runs through all generations of my and my husband’s family. So we have educated ourselves, become as much aware as possible, and taken steps to not have it become a major detriment to our family-as much as we could help anyway. But this is just one minor example.
I DON’T KNOW how things are with your family. You may not be over 35 years old and may still have things like this happen for you.
On the other hand, you may be 40 years old, ready to have your first child, and know that Down Syndrome runs in your family. But you STILL could conceive over 600 hundred times and have a wonderful baby without any genetic abnormalities at all! Remember that!
The odds are IN YOUR FAVOR. But knowledge is the greater power.
Maximize Your Odds Through A Sensational Online Class
Here’s to all your blessed babies born no matter how old you are.
It’s nearly impossible to find well-informed people in this particular topic,
but you seem like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks
Thanks Eden. Feel free to visit anytime!
Hello there! This post could not be written any better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate!
He always kept talking about this. I will forward this page to
him. Fairly certain he will have a good read.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing, Alfonzo. He may find a few other things interesting about how a mother’s weight can contribute to her child’s obesity too, here. Feel free to visit anytime, thanks!
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I’m glad that you like what you’ve found. Let me know if you ever have questions or need any help at all. Thanks, Shanelle!
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I assure you that I have written everything here and am glad that you’ve found it helpful in your difficulties. Feel free to share and visit often. Thanks Carlton!
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Short but very precise information… Thanks for sharing this one.
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You’re welcome. Thanks for your comment.
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You’re welcome. Thanks for your comment.
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Everything here at mynaturalbabybirth.com is written by me. If you’re looking for anything in particular, feel free to use the search bar on the right side or look through the categories in the menu. Let me know if you have any questions, thanks Josef!
I’m newly married and starting a family is a talk among my in law’s. I had the idea that age matters in pregnancy but was not aware of these details. Thank you for sharing this. I would be surely visiting your site for more info!
Let me know when you need help with anything, Demi. I look forward to hearing from y in the future, thanks!
This is actually quite scary. My wife and I will have hopefully finished making our family before shes 35
Remember your odds though Jason. If you’ve already started your family, great! Working your wife’s age into future plans can help ensure the rest. Thanks!
This is something that I’ve been interested in for a long time. My brother was born when I was 13 and my mother was 36. The information and images that you’ve used were extremely informative and made it easy to learn about this. Thank you for putting this info up, I hope it helps others!
<3
Lauren
You’re welcome Lauren. Glad you were able to find what you were looking for. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Sarah, I am reaching my mid 30’s and this article speaks loud and clear for me. I do understand the risk involved in late age pregnancy, but as of now, I am not prepared financially to have a child.
What I am doing now is to keep myself as healthy as possible and if natural doesn’t take place, I will resort to other alternatives.
Thanks for this insightful information.
I hear you Cathy. But let me share from experience, if you wait to have children simply because of money, you likely won’t have children. In our family personally, I’m the only source of income while my husband stays home with our children. I can’t speak for those in dire circumstances, but we have always had enough.
That’s wonderful that you are still preparing and know that you will have kids one day. But everyone has their own circumstances and I can’t speak for everyone. Thank you for your comment and I’m glad that I was able to help in some small way.
Wow. I had no idea that Down Syndrome was so common, and that there was correlation with the age of the mother. Do you know if the age of the father has anything to do with it as well?
Do they know WHY age matters?
The age of the father is less contributive as the age of the mother. But there are other risks with the father’s age too. But in comparison to how the mother’s affects the baby, that risk is MUCH smaller and nearly negligible. Maybe I’ll write up a post on that too for further clarification.
The WHY to it all happening is a variety of genetic and metabolic factors that may be difficult to explain in short. But it ties to the basic facts of how our bodies age and the cycle of our cells becoming interrupted, causing other problems as well, like cancer. I’m glad you’re curious because that’s how SO many questions get answered. Thank you Nathaniell. Please let me know if you have further questions.
WOW! I had no idea that there was much difference to begin with when it came to being pregnant, whether your young or older. Im only 20, and I’d Like to make sure I get business done at a good time i guess then!
Thanks!
Matt TheDopestMatrix
It’s certainly good to keep in mind. You have plenty of time too. Thanks, Matt!
Hello Sarah! This is a wonderful post! Such valuable information you offer! I am one of these women who is trying to focus on continuing my education and building a career and as a result I have to forget about pregnancy for a while. I think most women are like that today since they are chasing a career and plan on getting having children after the age of 30 or 35.
I had no idea there are so many factors to consider when pregnant after the age of 35! My mother is right about insisting on me having a child now!
Thank you so much for sharing!
I was a little bit that way too. We wanted to make sure that we were done with school before we had children. So we were married for at least six years before we started trying.
My mother always told me to have our kids before I even turned 30 so that I could be a young grandmother and able to play with my own grandkids. Certainly a consideration I didn’t listen to much back then. But now I’m considering it as we’ve timed our children 18 months apart.
In all honesty too, you CAN have a career with children. You can NEVER have a completely balanced life, but it’s no reason to throw away your goals, especially when having children is an important goal too. Anyway, thanks for your comment!
Sarah,
This is so important for women over 35 to know before deciding to have a baby. I had my daughter after 35 and it was an ordeal. I had to go do fetal monitoring weekly, dr visits weekly, and so much to make sure I was well and my baby too.
I am happy to say I have a beautiful baby girl, but it important to think about all the risks.
That so wonderful that your daughter is well. Just another reason to consider timing your children to avoid the nuisance, even when there might not be anything wrong. Thanks for sharing your experience, Camille. Best!
Really well put together site. Your information is seriously needed for women of all ages considering giving child birth. Definitely a site that requires multiple visits.
Thanks Travis. Feel free to share.
Hey Sarah, I would like to start off by saying that you have a really nice site. This information is very useful and it actually started a discussion between me and my wife. She is currently 28 and I am 32. We want to have children but have been putting it off due financial issues. Also, my wife is worried that she will have complications during childbirth because she has a condition known as PCOS. Have you heard of anyone having serious issues with childbirth due to this condition? What do you think would be the best course of action that we should take in order to ensure that everything goes well during her pregnancy?
Hi Don. You sent me on a little research of my own. I found this page on the National Institute of Health’s website discussing this very fact about having PCOS during pregnancy. And it seems that the first hurdle to get over is conceiving in the first place. Your wife likely has irregular periods, so ovulation cannot be easily predicted, thus harder to conceive . Chances are you’d have to have sex atleast every other day for atleast a year or two to see if it is possible for you.
When you do become pregnant, chances of miscarriage are much higher along with all the other regular risks discussed in this post, Pregnancy Risks After Age 35. They’re the same. And the same way to battle them is with diet and exercise. They’re you’re best bet. You can find Easy Pregnancy Exercises HERE and foods TO EAT and NOT TO EAT as well.
As always, be absolutely sure you work with your wife’s doctor, even before you become pregnant. IVF may be the only option for you. But you STILL CAN conceive and birth a child with success as well. I wish you luck on your venture. As I told someone else earlier in the comments: if you wait to have children because of money, you will likely never have them. You WILL find a way, and as a mother of two being the sole breadwinner in our family, it IS possible. With the odds that it may take a few years for you to become pregnant in the first place, you may want to start trying now. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I’m here. Thanks, Don!