Waiting Until a Little Later in Life to Start a Family
Having a child tends to be a majorly different experience for every single person. Women are able to become pregnant from the first time they experience menstruation, but generally speaking, this occurs at a very young age, and people wait a lot longer before having a child, using contraception to prevent impregnation until a time when they feel ready to raise a little one – if they choose to have a little one at all. Generally speaking, the average woman will have a child between the age of 18 and 30. But it’s important to remember that people can have children at a much later date than 30. Here’s a little more information on the subject of leaving having children until a later date!
Countries Where Women tend to be Waiting Until Later in Life
The number of countries with larger numbers of older first time mothers appears to be on the rise. Check out the following list of countries with older first time mothers, detailing the average age (in years) of first time moms.
- Greece – 31.2
- Australia – 30.5
- South Korea – 30.3
- Japan – 30.3
- Italy – 30.3
- Switzerland – 30.2
- Luxembourg – 30.2
- Singapore – 29.8
- Spain – 29.8
- Ireland – 29.8
- Hong Kong – 29.8
- Netherlands – 29.4
- Germany – 29.2
- Portugal – 29.2
- Denmark – 29.1
- Sweden – 28.9
- Slovenia – 28.8
- UK – 28.7
Oldest Mothers in the World
While the numbers above tend to fall between 28 and 32, it’s important to bear in mind that there are women out there who have had children much later in life. Here are some of the oldest mothers in the world.
- 72 years old – Daljinder Kaur, India
- 66 years old – Valentyna Pidverbna, Ukraine
- 66 years old – Elizabeth Adeney, UK
- 66 years old – Adriana Illescu, Romania
- 65 years old – Haya Shahar, Israel
- 65 years old – Annagret Raunigk, Germany
How Age Affects Ability to Conceive
One major worry that women tend to have when it comes to conceiving at a later date is how age affects their ability to conceive. Generally speaking, age is the biggest factor that impacts a woman’s ability to conceive and birth a child. The average woman’s fertility begins to decline in her early thirties and this decline excels from the age of 35 onwards. This is because a woman is born with all of the eggs that she will have in her lifetime. As a woman ages, her eggs age too, declining in quantity and quality.
Means of Conceiving
Many people wrongly assume that they can rely on procedures such as IVF to conceive at a later age. While IVF can help women who are experiencing symptoms of infertility to conceive, its benefits can also be compromised by age. Instead, women may have to lean towards alternative means of conceiving if they intend to build a family later in their lives. One option is freezing eggs. This process sees specialists collect a woman’s eggs, freeze them, then thaw them at a later date when a woman feels ready to conceive. By taking the eggs early when they are of higher quality, you can save high quality eggs for use at a later date. Another option is surrogacy. If you want to conceive, but your body isn’t carrying fertilised eggs well, you could use the services of a surrogate mother who will carry and birth a child on your behalf. You can learn more about surrogacy here.
Why Wait Until Later?
Seeing as having children later in life seems to be more difficult, you may be wondering why so many women are choosing to wait until a little later. But when it comes down to it, there are various logical explanations. Nowadays, people tend to be earning less, while the price of living goes up. Having children later in life gives women the opportunity to earn more substantial sums of money and have more savings to fall back on that can help them to raise a child.
As you can see, many people are making the decision to wait until later in life to start a family. So, hopefully, the above information has helped you to see that having children later is an option for many women, and that there are different means of support out there to help you along the way!