Births Rates Down, but Older Women Bucking the Trend

Birth rates are down, and this is no news, since we are witnessing the trend for a several decades now. According to CDC women have fewer babies these days and they are more careful when they are going to get pregnant. There are rebels that are fighting the trend. Older women seem to be bucking the trend of downward birth rates. In 2008, birth rates in US were down by almost 2% which is compared to year 2007, a year when the birth rates were at an all time high. In 2008 researchers saw a decline in many categories, not only general birth rates, but also in teen pregnancy. However, there is a group that buckles the trend of decline, a group that has more babies than ever before. Women in their 40s.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says women between 40-and 44 had a 4% increase in birth rate and this is the highest increase since 1967. Infertility specialist Dr. Russell Foulk says 50% of the women he sees are 37-years or older and he says the CDC numbers don't surprise him at all. Despite the fact every woman (and her body) is different, physicians claim approximately at age 35 female fertility starts to decline rapidly. And one might think by the time woman reaches 40s, she would give up on having children at all.

But if this is what you think, you do not know women at all. The main reason for postponing pregnancy is work-related issue. Often there are personal reasons present, such as finding the right partner. However, a fact is that there is an increased age in women first choosing to have a child. Women are expected to live longer than their grandmothers, but comparing to their grandmothers the most fertile years have not changed. Therefore if a woman decides to have a baby in her 40s it is very possible she is going to need medical intervention. People might be skeptical whether woman in 40s might have healthy pregnancy, but the experts claim than a healthy 40 years old woman has a better chance of healthy pregnancy outcome than an unhealthy woman in her 20s.