If you are one of those career women who have had to put off having babies due to work and commitments to other things, you may suddenly find yourself at a stage in life when you are desperate for them – at a painfully late time. Of course, by now you already know that your chances of getting pregnant are a lot lower than they were when you were a lot younger. In fact, some experts have said that it is almost impossible for you to get pregnant through your own eggs when you pass the forty five age mark.
However, it is a known fact that there are a lot of women who are over forty years of age who get pregnant after all, and while some of them use fertility treatments, others do not. As a plus, recent research has shown that there may be hidden advantages of having children a little later than your youthful years. The things is, no matter the age you decide to have a child, be it young or old, you would discover that there are advantages and disadvantages to having a child at those times.
Here Are Some Advantages Of Having Waited Till You Were In Your Forties To Have Children
One advantage of the wait lies in the wait. The fact that you decided to wait to have children is in itself an advantage. It means that you have had time to grow and see the world, and have your fill of life. By now, you and your spouse would already have carved out your careers, and would have an already stable financial base. Also, since you and your partner have stayed together this long, there is a higher chance of having the baby in stable family conditions.
There are reasons to believe that older mothers, who are more educated, and also wiser than younger mothers, tend to make better and wiser decisions when it comes to their babies. The older mothers are the ones who tend to breastfeed better and more often than their younger counterparts. In fact in a recent research, it was discovered that older mothers tend to have a healthier nutritional choice that affects their baby’ overall health.
There are also financial advantages to having waited till after forty to have children. In recent financial analyses, it was estimated that a total of about twenty one thousand dollars yearly is saved in a household where the mother decides to put off having children. It was also found that the more years a woman has at work, the lesser time she takes off the job for maternity leave. If they have to even reduce their work, they tend to opt for working part time, rather than to stop working totally.
Most marriage counselors would advise you to have children in your twenties and thirties, but they also admit to advantages in waiting a little longer. They have pointed out that older parents tend to take care of their children, and are more attentive to their children’s need than their younger counterparts. They also have less financial problems with raising the kids, and they can manage the pressure of taking care of them based on the number of hours they have put into working at their careers.
However, it would be a great disfavor to paint everything rosy. There are a couple of disadvantages to having a baby at forty, as you already probably guessed. Here are some of them:
First of all, there is a lower chance of you having a child if you waited until you were over 40 years of age. The reason for this has been backed up by science. According to extensive research, the number of a woman’s eggs begins to decline as early as fifteen years before she hits menopause. However, if she manages to scale the hurdle, yet another awaits her: there is a higher risk of having children with chromosome problems at this age of 40, and this can lead to birth deformities and also to miscarriages.
There is also a difference in your chances of having a baby in your early 40’s and mid to late forties. In fact the drop is so steep, that you have higher chances of getting pregnant at forty one than you would have at forty three.
In a recent research conducted to test the fertility levels of older women, it was found that women tested for fertility at the age of forty had a twenty five percent chance of getting pregnant through the use of their own eggs. Once they reached forty three, this percentage was adjusted to a low ten percent, and at forty four, it was pretty dismal, resting at a sad 1.6 per cent.
So from the above information you find out that it is possible to get pregnant after 40 though marked by advantaged and disadvantages.