Host:
Welcome to a very special part of our pregnancy garden. This section is designed for those of you who will be 35 or older when your baby is born. We're going to touch on a few topics that are not covered in the other modules, and that may be of particular interest to you.
As you may know, more and more women are deciding to wait until they're older to have children. In fact, in the United States, the pregnancy rate for women under 20 has been dropping, while the rate for women over 35 has been growing! These days, women are having children well into their 40's. Many women decide that the benefits of starting a family later outweigh the risks that come with having a baby after the age of 35. Today, we're going to find out about some of the risks faced by more mature moms.
Real People:
When I was in my 20's,i don't know, I think I was more interested in me and what I wanted to accomplish and what I wanted to be. I had a great job and, you know, a good career and really enjoyed being single, and then when I met randy, he was, he was the right one. So I got married when I was 33 and then we wanted to have 4 children, so we had them as fast as we could. I'm not sure why I waited. Now looking back I love being a parent and wish I had done it sooner. Part of it was it just didn't feel like it was the right time. I wasn't really concerned at all about starting my babies in my 30's. It was doctors that seemed to always be worrying about that more than me. I found my emotions during pregnancy to be more related to worry, rather than crying. I think now that i'm45 and still want to have maybe number 6, I am, you know, my concerns have changed a little bit, not so much that I wouldn't have a healthy baby, but more so can my body handle it? They talked to us about some of the risks that are associated with being35 or older, but most of them seemed manageable, and we felt like we were well informed by the doctors. My major concern during my pregnancy was that I had a healthy child. I wasn't concerned with the sex of the child. I wasn't concerned about if the child would look like me or if the child would look like my husband. I just simply wanted a healthy child. Some of the advantages that I have as an older parent are being more financially secure, being more personally secure in who I am and what I can give to my child. I thought it was a wonderful time in my life. I was ready to have babies, and I felt like I wanted to have children now.