What does it mean that older women are having babies?


(May 25, 2010)--Last week's Stepmonster piece focused on reactions to the news that actress Kelly Preston is pregnant at age 47, raising questions about the consequences for women of extending their reproductive lifespans. If more women had babies at later ages, would this "level the playing field" for women? Would some of the tradeoffs women experience between work, romance and family cease to exist? Wednesday has asked me, as an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, to chime in with a few thoughts on this topic. (Some of the material presented here is discussed in more detail in my book Fatherhood: Evolution and Human Paternal Behavior, co-authored with Peter Gray.)

First, a question: Just how common it is for older women to have babies? High profile older celebrity moms including Preston create the impression that there's a virtual baby boom going on among older women. On the other hand, you are quite likely to know women who have encountered difficulties conceiving or carrying a pregnancy. You may even have experienced this firsthand. Many women have discovered that having a baby past a certain age is not easy.

While many people leap to the conclusion that celebrity older moms like Kelly Preston must have resorted to expensive assisted reproductive technologies, several comments on last week's Stepmonster entry were from women who got pregnant in their late 40s with no medical assistance. If we look at the raw numbers, we see that older women can--and do--have babies....Read more

Source: Psychology Today