According to a 2015 report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in England and Wales there were 15.2 births per 1,000 women aged 40 and over. In comparison, within the same time frame, there were just 14.5 births per 1,000 women in their 20s.
Such a statistic may not sound too shocking, or cause many waves–though, it should. Shockingly, this statistic indicates that for the first time since 1947, women in their 40s are birthing more children than women in their 20s!
To put those numbers in perspective, let’s analyze the same statistic for the year of 1981. In that year, the rate of birth for women 40 or older was a mere 4.9 per 1,000. For women in their 20s, the rate was 28.1. What these statistics clearly indicate is that the rate of fertility for older women has more than tripled since the early 1980s.
The ONS also took note of the overall average age of women giving birth. According to their research, the average slightly rose–30.2 to 30.3. Not a staggering influx to say the least, but a statistic that aids the idea that women are finding it easier and easier to birth children well into their 40s.
Elizabeth McLaren, Vital Statistics Outputs Branch, Office for National Statistics had this to say about the stead trend in these numbers:
“The trend for women to have babies at older ages continued in 2015. Over the last 40 years, the percentage of live births to women aged 35 and over has increased considerably. Women aged 40 and over, now have a higher fertility rate than women aged under 20 – this was last recorded in the 1940s.”
Learn what other experts had to say about the groundbreaking findings! Click next to read on!
Professor Adam Balen, the chairman of the British Fertility Society, also commented on the rising numbers, saying:
“We know that female fertility starts to decline gradually from the late 20s and more rapidly from the mid-30s onwards. While the risks should never be overplayed, men and women should be aware that reproductive outcomes are poorer in older women.”
“As well as it potentially taking longer to get pregnant, later maternity can involve a greater risk of miscarriage, a more complicated labour, and medical intervention at the birth,” Professor Balen continued.
It seems as though this trend is far from coming to a halt, and many including Clare Murphy, director of external affairs at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, support this claim. Murphy believes that because the trend seems to be a long lasting one, society should extend their helping hand towards older mothers.
“The trend towards older motherhood is here to stay, and there are many understandable reasons why women today are waiting longer to start or expand their families than those in previous decades,” says Murphy.
Clearly these findings are fairly significant as they mark both the staggering rise in fertility, and groundbreaking finding that women in their 40s are birthing more than their 20-year-old counterparts.
[H/T] Yahoo News
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