Advanced maternal age refers to women having their first child at an older age, typically 35 or older. This trend is due to factors such as education and career opportunities. However, advanced maternal age poses health risks such as difficulty getting pregnant, higher risk of birth defects, miscarriage, gestational diabetes, stillbirth, premature birth, and high blood pressure. Women may also require fertility interventions and have a higher likelihood of needing a cesarean section or bed rest.
Advanced maternal age can be described in two ways. It can be defined as the gradual social trend of increasing age of mothers when they have their first children. Alternatively, it can be considered as the age of the mother when she has her first child. In this case, age 35 or older is medically considered an advanced age.
It is certainly true that in Western countries especially, the age at which women have their first child has risen. This is due to a variety of factors. These include more educational opportunities for women, the older age of marriage for many women, and the presence of women in the workforce. While there are still many women who have children in their twenties and thirties, a number of women now wait until their mid-thirties or forties to start families.
From a health perspective, advanced maternal age poses some significant problems. One of these is mentioned with great frequency. It is more difficult to get pregnant as women get older and may require various fertility interventions to achieve pregnancy. These can be expensive and are not without risk. For example, IVF carries a higher risk of heart defects.
There are other known risks of advanced maternal age, as pointed out by many agencies that calculate birth defect statistics. One of the highest of these is having a child with Down syndrome. Between the ages of 32 and 35, the risk doubles for a child born with the condition. Ten years later, the likelihood of having a child with Down syndrome is ten times higher than at age 35.
The miscarriage rate also occurs more frequently. About half of all pregnancies end in miscarriage for women in their 40s. About 40% of pregnancies end this way for women between the ages of 20 and 35. An increased tendency to produce children with higher chromosomal abnormalities is thought to drive this change.
Other high risks include an increased likelihood of having gestational diabetes, stillbirth, premature birth, placenta previa, and high blood pressure. Women of advanced maternal age are more likely to require a cesarean section and/or need to be on bed rest. Some will also be at increased health risk from developing lifestyle-related diseases that may first emerge between their late 30s and mid-40s.
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