When it comes to child birth 40 is indeed the new 30. There is a clear societal shift towards older motherhood. More than one in seven women in England and Wales now conceive when they are over 35; one in 40 is over 40. Many in this age group are following the conservative road and finding a man, others are preparing to adopt, while some others are aiming to try for a baby on their own using various methods.



Our perception on when it is best to give birth has changed over a generation. It has moved on 10 years. Amid all this shifting business what women are not realizing is the big a risk they are taking leaving pregnancy until later.

There’s nothing wrong in being an ‘have it all women’, but make sure the order is not this one - career first, babies later - ‘coz this kind of an attitude is preparing us for something like a public health catastrophe.



The grim reality that emerges as an after effect of this shift comes in shape of hugely increased chance of infertility, Down’s syndrome and other abnormalities, miscarriage and maternal and infant mortality. With older fathers there is a big increased risk of schizophrenia in the child. Most of the women going for kids in later thirties or earlier forties are not aware of what they will have to face.



Dr Susan Bewley, a consultant obstetrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, London, believes that there is a need to make women aware of the harsh but true fact that in their late thirties or early forties, they are not as splendidly productive as they thinks themselves to be. Celebrities like Helen Fielding, Madonna, Cherie Blair - even Bridget Jones, have a major roles to play in sprouting of this kind of attitude. Media has only covered their success stories and not the desperation for conceiving that they have gone through, at the age of 35 or 40.



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