Scared about being pregnant over 40? Here’s some good news. The evidence shows that it’s not nearly as dangerous as the news media would have you believe. But before I dive into that, I’ll share just a little about my story.
At 42, I was about a year into my relationship w/ my now husband. We decided to stop using birth control and just “see what happens”. Since he already has a daughter, he was obviously fertile. Getting pregnant seemed to be rather easy for women in my family so we figured there was a fairly good chance of his sperm finding their way to the eggs I had left. Low and behold, I found out I was pregnant on the last day of January the following year, about 5 months after I stopped taking the pill. Bulls eye. I was shell-shocked but very excited. It was surprisingly quick. I guess the little one was really excited to get into the world and, for some reason, she chose me.
Little OLD me.
Everyone said my life would never be the same and that I would feel joy like I’d never known the second she came out of me. Uhhh… not exactly. What I felt was terror and a lot of “oh my god, what have I done.” I gathered from reading all the many articles on the subject that pregnancy and taking care of a kid would be difficult because of my “advanced” age. Another great confidence-builder. The truth is, I’ve never been more prepared, nor have I felt settled enough to be a mother than right now. So I’ll be 60 when she graduates high school… big deal. I’m gonna to be better off financially and emotionally at that point than I am now and I’m certainly more stable than I was 20 years ago.
You may be freaking out about the possibility of being pregnant at your age. And why shouldn’t you be? After all, most information available on the subject talks about how risky it is and some women even go so far as to call it a miracle. But is it? I did some research.
Here are a few factoids to help ease your mind:
1. There were approximately 3,850,000 live births in 2017. Below is the breakdown of women having babies in so-called “advanced maternal age.” (per 2017 CDC national vital statistics)
Women ages 35-39 = 554,000, 14%.
Women age 40-44 = 114,000, 3%.
Women ages 45-54 = 9,300, 0.25%
That’s a total of 677,300 women who had “geriatric” pregnancies and gave birth in 2017. That’s 17% of live births in a single year. I’d say that’s a pretty damn common miracle.
2. There was a study by the Boston University School of Medicine in 2014 which found that close to 20% of women who had children after the age of 40 lived to be 100, compared to 5% of women of the same age group who had kids a lot younger. This suggests that women who have children over 40 are 4 times more likely to live to age 100 or more. Woo hoo!
But why? It has to do with the natural maturation of your uterus and your body’s capacity to give birth. If you can grow a child in your 40’s, your reproductive organs are aging at a slow rate, which indicates that all of your organ systems are aging at a slow rate. Slower aging means living longer. Sweet.
Having a baby later in life is actually rejuvenating to the body and mind. A 2015 study entitled, “Rejuvenating effects of pregnancy on the mother,” discusses how late pregnancies actually stimulate biological life-lengthening processes and invigorate the organ systems. Basically, you’ve got your “old” blood (ha ha) swirling around with your baby’s new blood, which leads to health benefits, aka “rejuvenating” qualities. Pretty cool.
3. A 2011 article in Childbirth Connection which analyzed data from AHRQ (Agency for Health Care Research and Quality) stated it appears that “94% of births involved at least one complicating condition.” Yes – 94% of the several million babies born per year to mothers of any age.
First of all, what the hell??! It’s quite a leap to say 94% of pregnancies are “complicated”. I think it’s more appropriate to say that these are common factors in pregnancy… not complications. What a ridiculous thing to say. But as long as they’re saying it, it’s worth noting that if a 25 year-old has a potentially risky pregnancy, then so does everyone.
Secondly, “A healthy 42-year-old with no medical problems who is in good physical shape and conceives naturally is likely to have just as nice a pregnancy as a woman who is a decade younger,’ ” says Laura Riley, MD, a maternal-fetal-medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and chairwoman of the communications committee of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
In other words, overall health is a much more accurate predictor of pregnancy risk than maternal age.
So what do you do to stay or get healthy?
1. I’m no fitness guru and have been in and out of shape my whole life (mostly out). But when I got pregnant, I got it together because I knew I had to get stronger – not for me, but so I could carry this kid in my belly and then all around town after the birth (and, as it turns out, well into her toddler years). It’s really not that hard. I couldn’t believe how quickly I got stronger and how little effort it truly took.
Here it is, ladies: Walking, squats, and pushups. Simple, huh. (I know… easier said than done).
I used (and still use) an awesome app that I highly recommend and pretty much changed my body makeup. It’s by the fitness goddess herself, Jillian Michaels. They are 7-10 minute mini-workouts, customizable, and they’re different every single day! It’s called My Fitness.
You seriously can just get up off the couch, change your shoes and do it right there in the living room. You can customize it by level (beginner to advanced), whether or not you have any equipment, area of the body you want to focus on, etc. It is the single best workout-related purchase I’ve ever made and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I don’t even have a gym membership anymore and I have more core strength than the hubby.
You can go here to get it.
2. Try a meal plan. I like $5 dollar meal plans. The $5 meal plan is cheap (obvi – $5 a month) and gives you customized meals and the shopping list! It makes it so much freakin’ easier. Click here to try it.
I also recommend Sunbasket: it’s a highly customizable meal delivery service and is especially great for specialized diets such as Paleo and Vegetarian. AND it has cool options such as Mediterranean, Pescatarian, Carb-conscious, Gluten-free, etc. It’s all organic and uses only non-GMO ingredients. It’s super cool and healthier than the more popular ones like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh.
You can click here to get an $80 discount!
I dig being a mom and it just isn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I know it will be incredibly challenging, time-consuming, heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, pain-inducing, and punch-in-the-gut misery at times. But so what. Life is like that anyway.
Updated 3/30/19
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