The typical dad now is nearly 31 years old at his child's birth. New dads are older than they've been in decades. In 2015, the average age of a dad at the time of his baby's birth in the U.S. was 30.9 years old, up from 27.4 years old in 1972.
The study, published 30 August in Human Reproduction , used a federal repository of nearly 170 million birth records to find that the average dad is now 30.9 years old at their child's birth—and that 9% of newborns' fathers are at least 40 years old.
The median age of all mothers for births registered in 2016 was 31.2 years, while the median age of fathers was 33.3 years.
Having Babies After 35 Is Safe
And while it's true that conceiving after 35 comes with an increased risk of complications—like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, chromosomal abnormalities, and even miscarriage or stillbirth—many people go on to deliver healthy babies.
Most researchers investigating older dads start with those in their 40s. Although some even put 35-year-olds and up in the 'older fathers' category. We know the average age of fathers has been steadily increasing since the seventies.
There's no maximum age that stops a man from being able to have a baby. You can become a father long into your older years, but there are risks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You aren't too old. There's so much more you can offer your child at that age. Plus you probably are calmer and more financially secure at that age. And I know 38 sounds old to people younger than that but it really isn't(especially this day in age).
So to answer your question, 30s and 40s are definitely not too old to think about being a father! Not at all. I didn't have my first until my 30's. While I wish I had not been so afraid to become a father much earlier, its only downside was in the number of kids I was able to have.
23 is a perfectly normal age to have kids. He gets to be a younger parent and have more energy and be more engaged than an older parent. Also by the time the child is 18 he isn't not legally responsible for him.
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.
Fertility in the Aging Female
A woman's best reproductive years are in her 20s. Fertility gradually declines in the 30s, particularly after age 35. Each month that she tries, a healthy, fertile 30-year-old woman has a 20% chance of getting pregnant.
While a 92-year-old woman delivering a 60-year-old baby may sound like a bizarre plot twist from the movie “Benjamin Button,” it's true. Huang Yijun, 92, of southern China, recently delivered a child which she'd been carrying for well over half a century. The baby wasn't alive, however.
Superfetation is a phenomenon that occurs when a pregnant woman releases an egg, usually a few weeks into her pregnancy, and it's fertilized and implants in the uterus. The result is two separate pregnancies happening at the same time.
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.
As the father grows older, the number of mutations in the father's genome increases, leading to an increase in the incidence of congenital malformations in offspring [11, 65]. Older paternal age may be harmful to the offspring's health in terms of genetic mutations, telomere length, and epigenetics [66].
While fewer than 1 percent of first-time fathers are over 50, there are benefits to being a later-in-life father. Dr Paul Turek, a men's health and fertility urologist, says that men who have children at an older age tend to live longer. As an added bonus, their children tend to live longer as well.