A woman's peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s. By age 30, fertility (the ability to get pregnant) starts to decline. This decline happens faster once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely.
Geriatric pregnancy is a rarely used term for having a baby when you're 35 or older. Rest assured, most healthy women who get pregnant after age 35 and even into their 40s have healthy babies.
If you're older than 35 and hoping to get pregnant, you're in good company. Many families are delaying pregnancy well into their 30s and beyond — and delivering healthy babies. Taking special care can help give your baby the best start.
At age 30, fertility slowly starts to decrease. Most women don't have trouble early in the decade. In fact, even as you inch closer to your late 30s, your chance of getting pregnant within a year is around 65 percent. Age 37 is when fertility decreases more rapidly.
Pregnancy in Your 40s
If you get pregnant after 35 years old, experts call this an “advanced maternal age” pregnancy. But it's still possible to get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby in your 40s. Childbirth at older ages has become more common too. Since the 1990s, birth rates in people aged 40-44 have gone up.
Am I too old? While certain risks may rise with age, men continue to produce sperm throughout their lives and can father healthy children into old age.
If you are thinking about having a baby in your late thirties or early forties, you are not alone. Women ages 35-45 are increasingly becoming first-time moms. And most healthy women in this age group have healthy pregnancies, births and babies.
Women who become pregnant in their 30s and early 40s can have safe, healthy pregnancies, says Ellie Ragsdale, MD, director of fetal intervention at UH Cleveland Medical Center. But they do face a higher risk of some problems.
There's no expiration date on when guys can father a child. Case in point: Rocker Mick Jagger just had his eighth child at the age of 73. Since men don't hit menopause—the time in a woman's life where her fertility ends—they can typically continue to father children into their later years.
There's more to consider about pregnancy past your mid-30s. Older women are more likely to miscarry or have a stillbirth. They have a greater chance of developing gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and of delivering a baby who is very small.
Peak male fertility is around 25-29 years old. Sperm quality begins to decline at 30. At 45, men begin to experience a significant decrease in semen volume. Older men can also take longer to conceive a child.
Down syndrome occurs in people of all races and economic levels. The risk increases with the mother's age (1 in 1250 for a 25 year old mother to 1 in 1000 at age 31, 1 in 400 at age 35, and about 1 in 100 at age 40). However, 80% of babies with Down syndrome are born to women under age 35 years.
While it may take a bit longer to get pregnant if you're 35 or older, the average time it takes to conceive is still high. Women under 25 have a 25 percent chance of conceiving per cycle, compared to 15 percent among women between the ages of 35 to 39 (the rate drops to 5 percent by the age of 40).
So as you get older, you have fewer and fewer eggs, and the eggs you have aren't easily fertilized by a man's sperm. All this makes it harder for you to get pregnant. If you're older than 35 and have been trying for 6 months to get pregnant, tell your health care provider.
Although most men are able to have children well into their 50s and beyond, it becomes gradually more difficult after the age of 40 . There are many reasons for this, including: Sperm quality tends to decrease with age.
Pregnant women over the age of 35 and having their first baby have been termed as being advanced maternal age (AMA) or older mothers, or they are being referred to as an elderly primigravida or elderly primipara.
Many women wait until later in life to have children. In the U.S., birth rates for women in their 30s are at the highest levels in 4 decades. But an older mother may be at increased risk for things such as: Miscarriage.
1 Yes, your odds of conception at 33 are not as good as they were at 28. At around age 37, fertility starts to decline at a much more rapid pace. Research has found that in any given month your chances of getting pregnant at age 30 are about 20%. Compare that to your odds at age 40, which are just 5%.
Success rates decline even more rapidly in your early 40s. Though plenty of mums over the age of 35 have healthy pregnancies, you do have increased risk of ongoing health conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. These conditions can affect how well your pregnancy and birth goes.
While it's certainly possible to have a baby past age 34, it can be more challenging. As women age, their chances of getting pregnant decline significantly. Women reach peak fertility by their late teens and twenties.
Ages 27-34: 86% chance of conceiving in one year. Ages 35-39: 82% chance of conceiving in one year.
Babies born at 34 weeks usually have fairly well-developed lungs, and their average size of 5 pounds (2,250 grams) and 12.6 inches (32 cm) from crown to rump allows them to survive outside the womb without extensive medical intervention.