Posted on 9/17/2005, 12:14:37 AM by Crackingham
Women should have a family first - before they are 35 - and leave their career until later, a group of leading doctors said yesterday. The obstetricians and gynaecologists said the increasing number of women delaying having children were defying nature and risking heartbreak. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they recommended that if women wanted families and a career, they should have children earlier, and called for more support for younger mothers. Women's groups voiced caution over putting a deadline on childbirth but agreed on the need for more support.
Susan Bewley, consultant obstetrician at St Thomas' Hospital in London, said the doctors were motivated by the number of older women they saw experiencing problems in childbirth. She said: "It is us in the clinic who see the heartbreak, and we cannot help these people when they are running out of time. That is what motivated me to write [the report] and ask the authorities what can be done to help women to do it at a time that suits them."
In Scotland the most common age for giving birth is now 30 to 34. There has also been a steady rise in the proportion of mothers aged 35-plus, from 6 per cent in 1976 to 18.8 per cent last year.
But Dr Bewley said the optimum age to have a child remained between the ages of 20 and 35. She said: "Each woman finds her own solution but we cannot kid ourselves having children at 35 is easy. It is not. It goes wrong for lots of people."
The strongly worded editorial, co-authored by Melanie Davies, a consultant obstetrician from University College hospital, and Peter Braude, head of the department of women's health at St Thomas', pointed out age-related fertility problems increased after the age of 35, and dramatically so after 40.
The editorial claimed employers and health planners were to blame for encouraging women to delay motherhood to focus on careers and financial stability. It called for government and companies to make it easier for women to choose to have children at a younger age, and said: "Free choices cannot be made with partial knowledge, economic disadvantage for mothers, and unsupportive workplaces.
"Doctors and healthcare planners need to grasp this threat to public health and support women to achieve biologically optimal childbearing."
The experts listed a number of complications linked to later motherhood, including pre-eclampsia and increased risk of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies.
They also said that older fathers had decreased fertility, while children of older men had an increased risk of schizophrenia and several genetic disorders.
They wrote: "Women want to 'have it all' but biology is unchanged, deferring defies nature and risks heartbreak. If women want room for manoeuvre they are unwise to wait till their thirties."
Dr Bewley added: "You cannot suddenly emerge at 45 and say, 'Now I want children'. I appreciate we want it all and some will get it. But there is a window for reproduction where there isn't for work."
Ooooh, I'm sure more government intervention will fix everything right up.
Yeah,
I really feel like you shouldn't put off....
Nevermind ;)
Good summary!
They have a good point about the age. Never before in history could the majority women wait to the age of grandmotherhood to bear children.
Government Intervention (in the U.S.) would mean lowering/eliminating taxes so families could actually LIVE on one income.
Dr Bewley added: "You cannot suddenly emerge at 45 and say, 'Now I want children'. I appreciate we want it all and some will get it. But there is a window for reproduction where there isn't for work."
I can hear feminists now, "Don't tell ME what to do! How dare you try to box me in with your paternalistic limitations!" etc..
A lot of women don't seem to realize that they are really arguing with God, not men.
tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock...
Women's fertility starts to decline after 27.
One starting place is to stop treating young women, 15-19 like they are children. They are not children at that age, they are young adult women and should be regarded as such for their own benefit.
Holy Cow! This smacks of Commie China. Hard core government domination. Absolutism. Unbelievable.
Technically speaking, you're ready for childbirth when your body changes to enable it to happen. It's civilization that's put the future of our race in danger - sure, heartbreak is bad, but there's so much more at risk. The later you wait, the smaller your chances of having more than one child, or any at all.
Um, no.
The blame actually lies on '60s feminists, with their glorification of careers and their denigration of stay-at-home moms.
Radical '60s feminism was adopted as gospel by the mainstream media, and promoted in countless TV programs that glamorized women lawyers, judges, doctors, police, etc. ad nauseum.
By now several generations of little girls have swallowed that television pap. They've modeled themselves after all those actresses who look so glamorous playing those tough, career-woman roles.
Sadly, these girls often don't fully realize that the world doesn't really work that way, and that they've been duped, until they're well into their 30s.
I've read somewhere that putting off childbirth has increases the chances for women developing breast cancer.
A friend of mine waited until her late 30's to try to have kids. She found out that she was nearly infertile, and after a lot of frustrating attempts involving a lot of medical technology, she and her husband ended up having to find an egg donor. I think the professional feminists aren't being upfront with women about what can happen as a result of waiting to have children.
Downs syndrome is increased at 35. 1 out of 365 births have Downs
As a mother of seven, going on eight, I say Piffle to that. Having someone hold the door is nice, and people do this for me all the time - leaving my Designated Opener (the oldest boy with me at the time) to hold the door for the next several people through.
However, all the rest of it is just more of the same mindset that has led to the situation we have today ... the idea that people should be able to have children without giving up anything they did or had when they didn't have children. Sorry, I don't buy it. I've given up a lot of alternatives in order to have my family, and I don't expect sympathy or extra service from anyone but my friends (who expect the same back - we all have our off days).
All I want from "society" is less government, less taxation, less regulation, less interference ... and bigger parking spaces :-).
Almost, but it's not really good until you've finished up with puberty. Teens are considered to have high risk pregnancies, too. I had my first period at 13, but I wasn't done with the rest of puberty (height, breast changes, etc) until about 16. I have heard the healthiest years for pregnancy are between 19 and 24. I had my first at 20 and had not a problem, but I am 31 and having my fourth (and last) and it's not quite as easy anymore. Even losing weight afterwards was MUCH easier in my 20's. I had more energy in my 20's, too! (But more patience now!)
"Putting off childbirth defies nature, claim doctors"
You don't want to put it off much more than nine months, or you get really grumpy.
More women should make a "career" raising their own children. Might have to skip the extra BMW though.
I don't want to start a flame war, please. No offense to anyone that wants kids. Really.
I am a 50 yr old male w/o children and can't figure out why someone wants kids. If I had a farm or millions of$$, of course, I would want to pass that on. But being a normal working person that looks forward to retirement at around 70, why would someone want to pass this life style on????????
But being a normal working person that looks forward to retirement at around 70, why would someone want to pass this life style on????????>>
Because you owe it to God, one way or 'nother.
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