What You Probably Didn’t Know About Pregnancy In Your 20s, 30s & 40s

Experts and people who have been in the business of raising a family for a while will tell you outrightly that there is no such thing as the “right” time to have a child or to raise a family. You can experience pregnancy in your 20s, 30s, 40s and in rare cases, 50s.

There are however obvious advantages and disadvantages. In your 20’s you have energy to cope with the demands of a baby and toddler, but probably fewer financial resources and life experience. In your 30’s and 40’s, you may find it harder to get pregnant and stay pregnant, but you will have had the required life experience to handle training and raising another individual.

 When it comes to controlling fate, even with family planning and protection, there is very little that we can do as humans to prevent this.

20’s

Hypothetically speaking, these are the most fertile years of a woman in this age range. Periods come regularly, even when they don’t, there is a 97% chance that you are ovulating regularly. The average woman between 20 and 24 years old has about a 20 percent chance each month of getting pregnant when she has unprotected intercourse. Research by Parenting shows that you have about half the risk of gestational diabetes that women in their 40s do, which is why recent guidelines from the American Diabetes Association suggest eliminating the once required routine test for gestational diabetes in women age 25 or under. In your 20’s you have a much higher chance of getting in shape, even during pregnancy. Which means that you will get your pre-pregnancy body back faster than a much older woman. You may also decrease the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Diane Ross Glazer, Ph.D., a psychotherapist in Woodland Hills shares that women in this age range are most likely more worried about there figures and body shapes than older women, plus chances of delivering a baby with Down syndrome are 1 in 1,250, and there’s a 1 in 476 chance of having a baby with any chromosomal abnormality in this age range.

30’s

Women in this age range begin to suffer from a declining fertility rate. Parenting reports that a study found that the rate of cesarean sections was close to two times higher among women ages 30 to 34 than among those in their 20s, although doctors don’t know why, but it is possibly because labor tends to take longer in older women. “Fertility continues to decline after age 35, and it takes a nosedive at age 38,” says Benjamin Younger, M.D., executive director of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, in Birmingham, AL. “The decline is due mostly to the fact that the woman’s eggs are aging, and they become more difficult to fertilize,” he adds. The risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy will likely double for women over 35 compared with younger ones, hypertension also affects about 10 to 20 percent of pregnant women in this age group. Gestational diabetes is two to three times more common in women over age 35. The chance of having multiple births, especially twins and even triplets increases in this age group. “This is probably due to the fact that the hormonal stimulation of the ovaries changes slightly as a woman ages, increasing the chances that they’ll release more than one egg,” says Dr. Younger

40’s

How well you carry and deliver a baby in your 40s depends on several factors, including one’s level of fitness, overall health habits, and whether this is the first baby the woman has. “The biggest complaint I hear among my pregnant patients in their 40s is how tired they feel. Hormonal changes in pregnancy makes all women feel tired, but fatigue seems to be more pronounced in older ones and can be compounded if there are young children to care for,” says Jennifer Niebyl, M.D., a professor and head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Iowa.” If you’ve already had a baby, you may also be more prone to hemorrhoids, pressure on the bladder, prolapsed tissues in the uterus and vagina, and sagging breasts than you would have been 20 years earlier, simply because the muscles and other tissues in these areas have already been stretched. It is however advised not to gain an excessive amount of weight while pregnant in this age group, exercise moderately and doing Kegel exercises to keep the vaginal muscles strong.

Even if you’re in top physical shape, carrying and delivering a baby will be more difficult than it would be if you were in the same physical shape in your 20s. “Pregnancy, in a sense, is like an athletic event. Blood volume nearly doubles, increasing the strain on your heart, and the extra weight puts some strain on your muscles and joints,” says Dr. Niebyl.