42 year old pregnant woman
Pregnancy After 40: What to Expect
Written by Alexandra Benisek
In this Article
- What Are the Risks of Pregnancy After 40?
- What Are the Benefits of Pregnancy After 40?
- How Can You Prepare for a New Baby After 40?
While 1 in 4 people in their 20s and 30s will get pregnant for any one menstrual cycle, only 1 out of every 10 people will become pregnant for any one menstrual cycle by age 40. At this age, you have a 44% chance of pregnancy within 1 year. This is because as you get older, the number of eggs in your ovaries decline. With age, you’re also at a higher risk for disorders that affect your fertility.
If you get pregnant at 40 to 45 years old, experts consider this a “late” 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. To prepare for a baby at 40, it’s important to consider the risks and benefits.
What Are the Risks of Pregnancy After 40?
In people who can get pregnant, the peak reproductive years span the time between your late teens and late 20s. Your fertility will begin to go down around age 30. This process continues more quickly starting in your mid-30s. Once you reach 45, your fertility will usually be so low that a natural pregnancy is unlikely for most people.
But some women may still have a “menopause baby.” This refers to a pregnancy and delivery that happens when you’re in perimenopause, the transition into menopause (which is when your ovaries have stopped releasing eggs).
The sperm-producing parent may also have a decline in fertility with age. While this isn’t as predictable, it could still affect your chances of pregnancy at 40.
Other risks of pregnancy at 40 include complications that are more common at this age. Older women tend to have more health issues than younger women, such as high blood pressure.
This condition can put you at a higher risk for preeclampsia, which is when you suddenly develop high blood pressure and signs of organ damage while pregnant.
If doctors don’t treat this, it can lead to serious or fatal problems for you and your baby.
But later-in-life pregnancies can also affect the health of your baby, even if you don’t have any health conditions. If you get pregnant at 40, you’ll have a higher risk of:
A higher birth weight of your baby. One study found that the risk of macrosomia (or a higher birth weight of your baby) goes up with age.
Placenta previa. This happens when your baby’s placenta either partly or completely covers your cervix, which is the exit area of your uterus. With this condition, you may bleed more while pregnant and during your delivery.
Gestational diabetes. This is when you get diabetes for the first time while you’re pregnant. It causes high blood sugar that can affect your baby’s health and your pregnancy.
Gestational hypertension. This is high blood pressure that develops during pregnancy. It’s different from preeclampsia, which is a blood pressure complication during pregnancy.
Miscarriage or stillbirth. You’re more likely to have a miscarriage if you’re older. At age 40, 27% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage compared to 16% for those 30 or younger.
C-section. If you’re 40 or older, you’re more likely to have a C-section delivery than a vaginal delivery.
Down syndrome. The risk of having a child with Down syndrome goes up as you age. At the age of 20, 1 in 1,480 children will be born with the condition. But at age 40, this risk goes up to 1 in 85. At age 45, your child’s risk is 1 in 35.
Need for ablood transfusion. This can help save your life in an emergency blood loss situation during pregnancy. But it comes with the risk of complications as well.
What Are the Benefits of Pregnancy After 40?
While there are more health risks with pregnancy at 40, there are also some upsides to later births. You may:
- Have a more established career that allows you to have more time to raise a child
- Have a better financial status at an older age
- Want to have a child with a partner you met later in life
- Find that you’re more mature and ready to handle the responsibility of a child
Studies have also shown that a child later in life may lower your mental decline, lengthen your life, and lead your child to have better educational results (like higher graduation rates and test scores).
How Can You Prepare for a New Baby After 40?
To prepare to have a child, it’s important to create a reproductive life plan. With this, you and your doctor can prepare for you to have children at your desired age.
If you want to get pregnant now, make sure you’re as healthy as possible. Stop alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use. Talk to your doctor about prenatal vitamins with folic acid.
Visit your doctor to chat about your diet and lifestyle, sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening, a healthy prepregnancy weight, and any other concerns before you get pregnant. Everyone should make an appointment before they try to get pregnant, but this is especially crucial if you’re 40 and older.
If you don’t want to get pregnant now but may want to have a baby at an older age, talk to your doctor about:
In vitro fertilization (IVF). With this method, experts combine a sperm and egg in a laboratory to grow an embryo. Your doctor can then freeze the embryo for later use.
Oocyte cryopreservation. This is when your doctor freezes your eggs. They’ll take some of your eggs from your ovaries and freeze them so you can use them later in IVF.
You can still get pregnant naturally at 40, but these methods may heighten your chances of having a baby at a later age.
What I Learned From Being Pregnant in My 40s
Motherhood wasn’t always a top priority for Leslie. With a successful law career, family nearby, and lots of friends, she was happy with how things were.
Her perspective changed when she met her partner Aaron. After two years of dating, they decided to try for a baby – but being in their early 40s, they didn’t expect it to be easy.
From that moment on, Leslie’s experience was full of surprises. She shares her story with ACOG in this edited interview.
ACOG: Where does this story start, for you?
Leslie: I was never one of those people who said, “I have to have a kid, I have to be a mom.
” I was very content with the way my life was.
And then I met Aaron, who’s now my fiancé. I had just turned 40, and he was 41. We just started talking about it. He was very used to being around a lot of kids – and as an only child, I didn’t grow up with any of that.
Leslie decided to have prenatal genetic testing because of her age.Aaron is the only person I would have considered doing this with. I joke that he’s more maternal than I am. So we said, “OK, let’s give it a shot. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, we’ll still have a great life.”
ACOG: Did you have any trouble getting pregnant?
Leslie: I completely expected that I would not be able to get pregnant easily. I had frozen my eggs when I was 37, just because I didn’t know the direction my life would take. So that was our back-up plan. We decided we would try on our own for 6 months, and then maybe we’d try with the frozen eggs.
But we were very lucky, and I got pregnant on the first try.
We found out over Thanksgiving weekend in 2017. Aaron was like, “Are you excited? I can’t tell!” And I totally was, but I was also just in utter shock.
ACOG: What concerns did you have about being pregnant over 40?
Leslie: We were definitely concerned about the possibility of genetic defects. We knew the risk of having a baby with a birth defect gets higher as you get older. But early on, we had genetic testing for chromosomal abnormalities – starting with a blood panel screening at 12 weeks.
While that test didn’t uncover anything concerning, I decided, due to my age, to have an amniocentesis at 16 weeks. This was a big decision, and I spoke extensively with the genetic counselor to think through it. Ultimately, I did it for the peace of mind – and everything came back fine, thank God. I was very grateful that we were forced to talk about those potentially hard choices as part of my prenatal care.
Otherwise, I did the best I could to take care of myself.
I took prenatal vitamins and stuck to my usual healthy diet. I planned to exercise regularly too, but to be honest, fatigue usually got in the way.
ACOG: How did your pregnancy go?
Leslie: My only risk factor was my age. I had no high blood pressure, no preeclampsia, no gestational diabetes. But I had more appointments and ultrasounds, plus the genetic testing.
I have to admit, I didn’t love being pregnant. I had morning sickness in the first trimester, and then I was just exhausted until the end. I felt very big and swollen. Everything ached.
ACOG: Did you have any complications with delivery?
Leslie: I delivered a healthy baby boy 2 weeks before my due date. I didn’t have any contractions or other early signs, and then one Saturday morning my water broke in a giant gush. They tell you it won’t be like the movies – but it was exactly like that!
Once we got to the hospital, I took oxytocin to induce labor and eventually I got an epidural.
I dilated to 10 centimeters and started pushing. They could see the crown of Bailey’s head but no matter what we did, he just wasn’t coming out. They even tried suction, to no avail.
At about 11 pm, the ob-gyn on call recommended a cesarean. I felt really deflated about that after going through all that labor. I felt like I had failed, even though I know I hadn’t. My baby was born healthy and well. And needing a cesarean delivery had nothing to do with my age. That could happen to anybody.
ACOG: What did you learn from this experience?
Leslie: Many women don’t have an easy time getting pregnant at my age, so I don’t want to make this sound like it will apply to everyone. But I didn’t know what my body was capable of until I tried. Women in their 20s can have fertility issues, and then there’s me, getting pregnant on the first try at 42.
I never imagined I would end up with this little family. But now that we have Bailey, I can’t imagine it any other way.
Published: October 2020
Last reviewed: October 2020
Copyright 2022 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. All rights reserved. Read copyright and permissions information.
This information is designed as an educational aid for the public. It offers current information and opinions related to women's health. It is not intended as a statement of the standard of care. It does not explain all of the proper treatments or methods of care. It is not a substitute for the advice of a physician. Read ACOG’s complete disclaimer.
In Omsk, a 42-year-old woman unexpectedly gave birth to a daughter, unaware of pregnancy . At night, she was taken to the hospital with severe abdominal pain and a preliminary diagnosis of renal colic. But without waiting for the conclusion of the urologist, the woman began to give birth.
As NGS55.ru writes with reference to the regional Ministry of Health, everything that happened came as a complete surprise to the mother.
According to doctors, the patient did not have a large belly, and the pains turned out to be real contractions. There was no time to take her to the maternity hospital - the birth was taken in the intensive care unit of the emergency hospital No. 1. According to the doctors, everything went well - mother and child are doing well. nine0003
It is reported that the woman was not registered at the antenatal clinic. As the woman in labor herself explained the situation, she had no health problems for 9 months, and she attributed the lack of a regular cycle to her age. At the same time, the newborn girl has already become the third child in the Omsk family.
The case in Omsk is not an isolated one - from time to time the media write about such unexpected births. A logical question arises: “How is this possible in principle?”. "Doctor Peter" asked him to the gynecologist-endocrinologist, reproductive specialist Oksana Seliverstova. nine0003
Gynecologist-endocrinologist, reproductologist
- As the menopause approaches, the menstrual cycle becomes irregular in a woman - periods come less often and at different intervals.
But despite this, menstrual cycles can be quite productive - with full ovulation. And at this moment, a healthy woman has a chance to become pregnant.
In addition, during the period of extinction of sexual functions, many women complain about weight gain: “I got fat”, “a belly appeared”, “I always weighed 58 kg, and now it’s 70”. nine0023 Against the background of such irregular menstruation and weight gain, sometimes significant, one may not notice the onset of pregnancy. In the world, such cases are described quite often.
Mild ailments associated with pregnancy may be mistaken for menopausal troubles. And if she does not have the habit of regular preventive visits to the gynecologist, then it is quite possible to miss a late pregnancy.
Anastasia Romanova
Tags
- Pregnancy and childbirth
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Novokuznetsk | In Siberia, a 42-year-old woman gave birth, not knowing about her pregnancy
Photo: cdn.
statically.io
This is the third child of a Siberian woman.
In Omsk, doctors gave birth to a 42-year-old woman who did not even know she was pregnant. The Siberian attributed the lack of a regular cycle to her age, while the woman already has two children.
The Siberian woman did not have a voluminous belly, she was admitted to the hospital in an ambulance with a complaint of renal colic. After the ultrasound, it became clear that the woman was pregnant. nine0003
“The patient was immediately placed in the intensive care unit, where she gave birth to a healthy baby girl very quickly. The baby was examined and sent to the perinatal center. The doctors had to deal with the woman, who, after all that had happened, was in amazement, because the birth of her daughter came as a complete surprise to her, ”TASS was told by the press service of the Ministry of Health.
Now the patient is in the gynecology department under the supervision of doctors. The birth went without complications, the woman is already being prepared for discharge.
nine0003 Source: sibdepo.ru Photo: pixabay.com.
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In Siberia, a 42-year-old woman gave birth without knowing about her pregnancy
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13:01 20.07.2022 Novokuznetsk.ru - Novokuznetsk nine0003
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In Siberia, a 42-year-old woman gave birth without knowing about her pregnancy
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In Omsk, doctors gave birth to a 42-year-old woman who did not even know she was pregnant. nine0068 11:42 20.07.2022 Sibdepo.Ru - Kemerovo
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OMSK, July 19 - RIA Novosti. Doctors in the emergency department of the Omsk emergency hospital No. 1 admitted a woman with severe abdominal pain, who turned out to be pregnant, but did not even know about it,
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A resident of Omsk confused pregnancy with hepatic colic
A resident of Omsk did not know about her pregnancy for 9 months. According to the press service of the regional Ministry of Health, a 42-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with a preliminary diagnosis of renal colic.
16:30 19.07.2022 Sibnovosti.ru - Krasnoyarsk
A woman from Omsk was hospitalized with renal colic and suddenly found out that she was giving birth.
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