The Risks in Delaying Motherhood – Becoming a late-life mom
I am surprised to hear this but a new British study , published in the October 2008 edition of the journal Fertility & Sterility finds that many women are unaware of the potential consequences of delaying motherhood until later in life. I knew of the risks and once remarried I thought that I might be one of the lucky ones who gets pregnant easily and delivers a healthy child or children later in life.
The study involved 724 women who were either pregnant or having trouble getting pregnant. Nearly all were aware that age affects the odds of conception. However, many were unaware that certain pregnancy complications increase with age. Additionally, many study participants had too much faith in in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The decision to delay childbirth is a complex and personal one, but women should be fully aware of the possible risks and benefits involved, wrote the researchers in a report about the study. Waiting to get pregnant later in life may fit well with your career or other choices but it does not give you the luxury of time when it comes to diagnosing and figuring out possible infertility treatments. IVF with or without donor eggs and/or sperm has the potential to be an effective treatment option but it comes with its own issues – financial (all your costs may not be covered by insurance), physical, health and emotional challenges.
Something else to consider is that age increases the need for a cesarean section and the risk of pregnancy-related diabetes, and that the odds of having twins increases as well.
However our lives don’t always take the course we had imagined in our youth. Life is a funny thing sometimes. In hindsight I wonder why I zigged when I should have zagged; why I made the choices that I did. In my quest to become a late-life mother, it was comforting to know that there were possibilities and that all was not lost.
November 24th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
The Risks in Delaying Motherhood – Becoming a late-life mom ……
I am surprised to hear this but a new British study , published in the October 2008 edition of the journal Fertility & Sterility finds that many women….