"I'm 37 years old, and I want to have a baby. What are my chances of getting pregnant? And are there special concerns for women my age that I should be aware of?"
Welcome to the 35-plus club! You won't be the only one in the maternity ward (or, down the road, on the grammar school PTA) in her late 30s or 40s. With birthrates soaring for women 35 and up, there's never been a more popular — or safer — time to be pregnant at any age.
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).
Ready to make a baby? Be sure to take a few important steps to boost your odds of conceiving:
- Make a preconception appointment with your practitioner to make sure all is well.
- Know your cycle, so you know when to take advantage of baby-making opportunities.
- Stay healthy by eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly and taking a prenatal vitamin.
If you try for more than six months without success, seek advice from your doctor. Even if a fertility issue is discovered, there's still an excellent chance that it can be resolved so that you can become pregnant.
Once you do conceive, your practitioner will monitor you closely for common, easily treatable pregnancy-related problems including high blood pressure and gestational diabetes (which occur slightly more frequently in older moms-to-be), and offer up a slew of prenatal tests to check on your baby's health (just to be on the safe side).
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Rest assured, given healthy habits and the right medical care, women over 35 can and do have easy, healthy pregnancies as well as smooth deliveries. With any luck, the worst thing you'll have to worry about is being identified by your practitioner as someone of "advanced maternal age" (yuck!).
Good luck,
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