Home 43 , 44 # of births between 40 & 44 increased by 50%

# of births between 40 & 44 increased by 50%

Catherine McDiarmid-Watt | Friday, August 24, 2007 | 2 comments

Are there more older mothers?

Birth statistics over the past twenty years show a huge swing in favour of delaying parenthood till our thirties and beyond. In 1998, the last year for which figures are available, 44% of births were to women over 30. The number of births to women between 40 and 44 has also increased by 50% over the decade.

~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~

Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44y

Daily blog of hope & inspiration!

http://pregnancyover44y.blogspot.com/

You Can Get Pregnant in Your 40's

Sharing articles, discussing options & suggestions

http://youcangetpregnant.blogspot.com

Category: 43, 44

About Catherine: I am mom to three grown sons, two grandchildren and two rescue dogs. After years of raising my boys as a single mom, I remarried a wonderful man who had never had a child of his own. Unexpectedly, I found myself pregnant at 49!
Sadly we lost that precious baby at 8 weeks, and decided to try again. Five more losses, turned down for donor egg, foster care and adoption due to my age and losses - we have accepted that there will be no more babies in our house.

Find Catherine on Google+ - Circle us on Google+ - Join us on Facebook - Follow us on Twitter

2 comments

Anonymous says:

19 October 2007 at 18:19:00 GMT-4

It would be great if someone could post statistics on how many of those births were the result of donor eggs, in order (a) to remove the stigma and/or desire to keep DE a secret, (b) to give people more motivation to protect their fertility from an early age, and (c) to provide motivation for improving the options for women over 40. (If the vast majority of these births were DE, then I think people would start clamoring for more research on biological baby options for women over 40!)
Catherine McDiarmid-Watt says:

31 December 2007 at 15:28:00 GMT-5

Thanks so much for your thoughts, they are important concerns.

I think every birth is a blessing and a joy, no matter how the baby comes to a family. DE is a wonderful option, and brings longed-for babies to many families. For some women, DE is their best option.

However, most of the stories listed here are unassisted, often surprise pregnancies.

The most current statistics are quoted on every page of the blog. It was taken from the CDC Statistics.

This is the quote: "In 2005, there were more than 104,000 births in the United States to women ages 40 through 44, and over 6,500 to women 45 and older. In 2004, there were 1,786 live births to women over 42, using donor eggs."

According to this, even if all 1,786 DE births were to women over 45 (the stats are for over 42), that would still leave 4,714 unassisted births to women over 45.

Therefore, the "vast majority" was unassisted, even over 45.

WE LOVE COMMENTS!
Don't just sit there, reading this story or article - say something! Do you believe it? Do you think it is impossible? Do you wish it was you? Do you have a story to share (it might get published!)

NOTE: Comments are moderated - just to stop the spambots - and so may take up to a few hours to be approved.

Catherine reserves the right to review, edit, refuse or delete any comment.