PSA: It’s Totally Fine to Have Babies After 35
Women are delaying having children
More women are having babies a little later in their lives; they are focusing on building their careers, financial stability, exploring the world, and even trying to find the right partner, and this could take some time. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, first-rate births for women in the 35-39-year-old age group have skyrocketed since the 1970s. It’s become somewhat of a national trend.
Women who have had children from their mid-30s and older have expressed that they are treated differently by medical staff solely because of their age. They report being referred to as ‘advanced maternal age’ or ‘geriatric pregnancy,’ making pregnancy at an older age seem scary and dangerous, but it isn’t. With modern medicine, women can conceive and carry their pregnancies to term even after the age of 35.
"It's normal to be concerned about later age pregnancy, and yet women at the age of 35 are generally healthy and can have babies," says Dr. Juli Fraga, psychologist. "Even with fertility issues, there are many ways to help families have children, through IVF, donor eggs, or surrogacy," she adds.
Hope is not lost
Don’t give up if you’ve been patient and trying to get pregnant at age 35 or older and aren’t finding success. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is an excellent option to explore. The primary type of ART is In Vitro fertilization (IVF), which has been highly successful. IVF involves extracting your eggs, fertilizing them with sperm in a laboratory, and putting them back into your uterus, where your baby will grow to full term. According to the University of Pennsylvania Medicine, 1 million babes were born in the united states between 1987 and 2015, and that number is still rising.
It is crucial to know that every woman’s fertility experience is different and successful pregnancy is dependent on several factors and not just because you’re 35 years old or older.
There is no guarantee that getting pregnant at 35 or older means it’s automatically a high-risk pregnancy or something will go wrong. There are risks like everything else in life, but these are only possibilities, not certainties.
Learn more about the intended parent process
No matter where you are in your journey, the Alcea website is filled with comprehensive resources for Intended Parents, to help you to understand the process.
