What’s it like for older mums? Hard to believe it now but ack in the day when I was a young midwife ‘Elderly Primipara’ was the the medical soubriquet for a woman having a first baby over the age of 26! Thankfully attitudes have changed! Healthy women have healthy babies well into their thirties and forties. Fertility levels may be lower and it may take longer to conceive, but perseverance pays off for women in their forties. Natural conception may be a struggle. More babies are born via younger egg donation. Once pregnant, older mums do just fine and face far fewer challenges than you’d expect!

Scary Science

Older mothers benefit from good care during pregnancy. There are some things to look out for. Melbourne fertility specialist, Kate Stern, told the Australian Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynaecology conference, ‘Women in their mid 40s are at greater risk of miscarriages AND most have healthy pregnancies.’  More complications include pre-eclampsia (potentially catastrophic high blood pressure), gestational diabetes, ante-partum haemorrhage (bleeding between 20 weeks’ gestation and birth), and placenta praevia ( the placenta implants at the bottom of the uterus around the cervix, meaning the baby cannot be born vaginally). Careful monitoring of pregnancy is required with swift obstetric intervention if necessary.

Real Midwifery

But let’s not get too dramatic here with scare-mongering.  Careful monitoring of pregnancy is normal in first world countries. What really interests me are the midwifery studies.

A study published in the journal Midwifery found:

• 2.5 per cent of women in their early 30s suffered pre-eclampsia compared to 4.6 per cent of women over 45.
• for diabetes it was 5 per cent versus 9.7 per cent and
• for placenta previa, it was 1 per cent against 4.6 per cent.
• and both groups had a similar rate of post-partum haemorrhage (bleeding following the birth).

Women over 45 are more likely to have c-section births. Approximately 50% go on to have caesarean delivery compared to a third of women in their early 30s. Many of these may be elective operations -planned by  patient and obstetrician.

Associate Professor Stern at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Melbourne IVF said, ‘The data suggest the risk of complications increases with advancing age, and becomes more worrying in the late 40s and escalated from about 50 onwards.’

“I think women [in their 40s] should feel reassured, but there are other issues. It’s no picnic. Getting pregnant is difficult on your own, there’s a higher risk of miscarriage. Finding an appropriate egg donor and taking on all the ethical and genetic complexities of donor eggs can be hard,” she continued.

Other studies show older women do not have increased rates of post natal depression – or an inability to cope with their baby.

No studies are yet available to see how they fare with teenagers! My guess is that older mums do just fine and smoothly navigate teen years.