The Masterpiece Mom

Home » Misc » Can you have a baby in your 40s

Can you have a baby in your 40s


Pregnancy After 40: What to Expect

Written by Alexandra Benisek

In this Article

  • Pregnancy in Your 40s
  • What Are the Reasons for the Drop in Fertility?
  • 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 in any one menstrual cycle, only 1 out of every 10 people will become pregnant in 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.

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. To prepare for a baby at 40, it’s important to consider the risks and benefits.

By age 40, if you're healthy, you have only a 5% chance of getting pregnant per menstrual cycle.

At the same time, the likelihood of miscarriage climbs with your age. A typical 40-year-old has about a 40% chance of losing the pregnancy. That compares to less than 15% for someone in their 20s. 

By the time you’re over 45, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says getting pregnant naturally is “unlikely for most women.”

What Are the Reasons for the Drop in Fertility?

As you age, so do your eggs. And you have fewer of them, too. You’re born with all the eggs you’ll ever have in your life, about 1 million. By the time you hit puberty, you may have about 300,000 left. At 37, you’re down to just 25,000 -- or 2.5% of your starting count. That matters because the fewer eggs in your ovaries, the lower your odds for conception.

Even if you do get pregnant, your older eggs are more likely to have abnormal chromosomes, which may raise your chance of miscarrying your baby. Also, if you're 25-40, you are more likely to have problems like endometriosis and uterine fibroids that make it harder for you to get pregnant.

The quality of your partner’s sperm also matters. As men age, their sperm tend to swim slower and begin to lose their shape. But sperm quality doesn’t drop steeply until after men enter their 60s.

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 people may still have a “menopause baby.” This refers to a pregnancy and delivery that happens when you’re in perimenopause, the transition into menopause.

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 left untreated,  this 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. Preeclampsia is also more common in older women even without hypertension.

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.Other chromosomal abnormalities are also more common. 

Need for a blood 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. However, many of the risks will still be present.

We've got some trouble | 400

Pregnancy after 40: how to prepare and give birth to a healthy baby

Is there an ideal age for pregnancy and childbirth? "Yes!" — experts of the department of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) of the Veresaev hospital are sure.

“The most favorable age for conceiving, bearing and giving birth to a baby is 20-35 years old, but theoretically, if a woman is in good health, she can become a mother even at 60 years old, but here you need to understand that getting pregnant at this age is possible only with the help of assisted reproductive technologies using donor or previously frozen eggs. The most “adult” pregnant woman after IVF was 52 years old,” says Karina Grigoryan, head of the ART department, obstetrician-gynecologist, doctor of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences.

What changes in a woman's body after 40 years and how it can affect conception, pregnancy and child?

The probability that women of the older reproductive group have various chronic diseases, including hypertension and diabetes, is high. Such pathologies tend to worsen during pregnancy, which means they can become a formidable complication for the mother and fetus.

In principle, the chances of conception decrease with age. This is due to changes in the reproductive system - the uterus, ovaries. The regular "aging" of germ cells increases the number of complications during pregnancy and can lead to fetal malformations:

  • Genetic and non-genetic
  • Preeclampsia, which in turn leads to increased blood pressure, disruption of the kidneys, edema, impaired blood flow in the vessels of the uterus, placenta and umbilical cord of the fetus

Of course, the capabilities of modern medicine, in particular, prenatal screenings allow timely diagnosis of pathological conditions on the part of the fetus and the pregnant woman, which means making the right decision on the further medical support of the woman in a timely manner.

Does pregnancy rejuvenate the body?

So says the popular rumor and partly we can agree with it.

It is known that the placenta, which is formed by the 12th week of pregnancy, has a powerful hormonal secretion. A high concentration of the female sex hormone estrogen has a beneficial effect on the appearance of the expectant mother.

What are the features of the course of pregnancy in a future mother 40+?

The main feature is an increase in the frequency of complications during pregnancy. Unfortunately, the risk of genetic diseases in a child increases several times - Down syndrome, Edwards, Patau, etc., heart defects and the central nervous system of the fetus. Therefore, the course of pregnancy at this age should always be under the close supervision of obstetricians and doctors of prenatal diagnosis.

Are there any diseases that are considered a contraindication to pregnancy 40+?

Contraindication to pregnancy is not age, but first of all the presence of severe chronic diseases, and they can be observed both in women over 40 years old and in very young patients. We are talking about such pathologies as multiple sclerosis, uncompensated and not treatable hypertension, severe heart disease, genitourinary system, mental, oncological diseases, etc.

How to prepare for pregnancy after 40?

If we are talking about a planned pregnancy, then in the pregravid period, the expectant mother is recommended to undergo a thorough examination: laboratory tests, a visit to a gynecologist, a therapist, ultrasound of the abdominal organs, kidneys, thyroid gland, vessels of the lower extremities and mammography.

If it's a second or third pregnancy after 40, does it carry the same risks as the first?

In a multiparous woman after 40 years, the body is “adapted” to pregnancy, the frequency of complications may be lower in general, but in this case we are not talking about fetal malformations, the risk of which does not depend on the number of previous births.

"Late" delivery is an indication for caesarean section?

The woman's age is not an indication for operative delivery. Many of our patients of the older reproductive group, including those who became pregnant with the help of IVF, gave birth themselves, naturally, and the birth went smoothly.

What are some of the postpartum issues that a 40+ mother may encounter?

If a woman was planning a pregnancy, had a complete examination, correction of pathological conditions, then the recovery postpartum period will run smoothly for her. Maybe not as fast as in 20-25 years, but quite successfully.

If we talk about women entering pregnancy with many chronic diseases, not examined, then we can expect various "surprises" in the postpartum period.

In any case, all mothers need care, support and help.

Pros and cons of pregnancy after 40?

Of course "for" with both hands. All women have successful pregnancies and healthy babies.

To learn more about assisted reproductive technologies available at the ART department of the Veresaev hospital, please call the single contact center: 8 (499) 450-55-81 (ext. 8).

Childbirth at 40+: doctor about late childbirth

Obstetrician-gynecologist of the highest category Pilipenko Lyudmila Nikolaevna spoke about the risks of late motherhood and modern methods of preventing them

Childbirth at 40+ is trending today . Why, forty are enough examples of successful childbirth even after fifty years. The reasons for this reproductive behavior are many and usually complex. It can be economic, psychological, and any other reasons. But - most importantly - the level of modern medicine and new reproductive technologies make later motherhood physically possible.

And indeed, in recent years, childbirth at the age of 40 is no longer surprising, it has become quite commonplace.

Moreover, in many developed countries of the world, in particular in Great Britain and the USA, the number of women who gave birth after 40 already exceeds the number of those who became a mother before the age of 20.

The development of reproductive technologies and advances in medicine are shifting the female age of childbearing further and further. Bridget Nielsen gave birth at 54, Janet Jackson at 50, Halle Berry at 47, Rachel Weisz at 48.

Since pregnancy and childbirth place an enormous burden on all organs and systems of the mother's body, the question arises: how safe is very late motherhood for the woman and for the child?

Women over 40 have significantly higher rates of complications during pregnancy and childbirth than those who give birth at a younger age.

If you decide to postpone motherhood until after 40, be prepared for the fact that pregnancy and childbirth can be associated with high risks.

The decision to give birth after 40 certainly needs to be approached with even more awareness than a pregnancy at a young age.

On one side of the scale - a new page in life and a lot of positive emotions, and on the other - a high risk of chromosomal abnormalities in a child.

From the point of view of nature, everything is quite clear: it is better to give birth to children from 23 to 35 years.

Because young women have better egg quality, the probability of chromosomal pathology in the fetus is less, they themselves still have a lot of strength and health not only to successfully carry and give birth to a baby, but also to get up at night in the first years. Starting from the age of thirty-five, it can be said that the countdown begins, and the woman's fertility is slowly falling, and the risks are becoming more and more.

A woman who decides to give birth after the age of forty should understand the peculiarities of such a pregnancy and try to reduce these risks in every possible way.

The risk of pathologies in the fetus increases

Starting from the age of 35, and especially after 40, the likelihood of a chromosomal abnormality in a child increases. These can be both relatively common pathologies such as Down syndrome, Patau or Edwards, and more rare ones. Let's take Down's syndrome as the most common and compatible with life. So, if a 30-year-old mother has a chance of having a baby with Down syndrome is about one in 800, then by the age of 40 we are already talking about a ratio of one to a hundred, and at 44 years old - one to 25.

That's why all these categorical statements “Did you get pregnant at 40? You're having a baby with Down's Syndrome!" far from the truth. Yes, the risk increases, but the probability is still not critical.

In addition, there are modern, highly accurate and safe methods for testing the fetus for genetic abnormalities. For example, a non-invasive prenatal test is performed, that is, a test on the mother's blood, starting from 10-11 weeks of pregnancy. Fetal DNA is isolated from the mother's blood and they look for genetic abnormalities - both frequent and quite rare.

Of course, there are more traditional and also quite accurate research methods, but they are associated with a risk to the fetus, because tissues are tested that are previously removed from the uterine cavity.

There are also screenings that are carried out in the first and second trimester in antenatal clinics for blood and ultrasound. Their accuracy is quite low, and if it is important for you to know about the presence or absence of a chromosomal abnormality in the fetus, then it is advisable to use more accurate methods.

50% of late pregnancies are terminated before 12 weeks

Also, in parallel with the increase in the likelihood of pathologies, the frequency of abortions in the early stages is also growing, that is, these are interconnected things. Half of all late pregnancies are terminated before twelve weeks. Accordingly, it will be either a frozen pregnancy or a miscarriage.

Caesarean section will help avoid intrauterine death of the fetus

In addition to genetic defects in the embryo and early termination of pregnancy, women of the older age group may experience a number of other problems associated specifically with age and health. It can be a whole baggage of gynecological diseases, some operations, uterine fibroids that occurred at the age of 38-40 years. And all this can have an impact on the course of pregnancy, on the risks of bleeding during childbirth, even on the birth itself.

It is authentically known that in pregnant women older than 39 it is advisable not to wait for forty weeks, but to give birth earlier.

Because, starting from the thirty-ninth week, the percentage of intrauterine death of the fetus increases: the placenta works under heavy load, the body has practically spent all its strength on pregnancy. In a normal situation, the body understands that its resources are not enough, and childbirth begins.

In patients of the older age group, the “time to go” mechanism may not start, and the fetus simply dies in utero. And this is a normal child, with a normal set of chromosomes, just the placenta in the last stages no longer copes with its function, and the “lever” for the onset of labor does not work. Therefore, doctors recommend such women to have a caesarean section at a period of 38-39weeks.

The main thing is a healthy lifestyle

In general, the outcome of pregnancy and childbirth depends on how healthy the woman is. At forty years old, different people's body can be preserved in different ways. The place of residence of the family plays a significant role: it is one thing when a woman lives in nature, eats natural products, moves enough, and quite another when she lives in a metropolis, eats food from the nearest supermarket, is little in the fresh air, but sits a lot at the monitor and nervous.

But this does not mean that if your health is not very good, you should not dream of a child. Even in the most difficult cases, healthy children are obtained, although such pregnancies are, of course, more difficult. This is done in our medical center by several specialists at once: an endocrinologist, a therapist, a gynecologist. We live in an iodine-deficient area, and the longer we live in it, the more likely it is that thyroid disorders will accumulate, such as hypothyroidism.

Preventive medical examinations should be carried out regularly.

Do not think that when you are 40 years old, that's it, you can't give birth.

When deciding to give birth at a later age, a woman needs to undergo a complete examination. That is, not only to look at the reproductive system, but also to check the heart, blood vessels, hormones, and so on. It is equally important to start (at least start!) Leading a healthy lifestyle: quit bad habits, start eating right and love physical activity.

Our Avicenna Medical Center has been successfully specializing in the treatment of infertility and miscarriage for more than 11 years, as well as in preparing women for pregnancy and further management of pregnancy.

Obstetricians - gynecologists together with a urologist - andrologist and narrow specialists solve numerous problems of future parents so that a healthy long-awaited baby is born.

To prepare for pregnancy, an integrated approach and highly effective methods are used, which are not available in most other centers: lymphocytotherapy, SCL. For examination of men: MAP test, electron microscopy of spermatozoa. The latest diagnostic and treatment technologies are used: laboratory diagnostics, ultrasound diagnostics, functional diagnostics, physiotherapy, hirudotherapy, plasma therapy, carboxytherapy, kinesiotaping, reflexology, manual therapy.

Remember: nothing is impossible and being over 40 is not a death sentence! Only three steps separate you from the opportunity to become happy parents:

- tune in;

- contact the specialists of our clinic;

- get the necessary qualified assistance.

Learn more