According to the CDC, 743 women over 50 gave birth in 2014, which is either a testament to the health of some older women, or a signal of the effectiveness of modern medicine. Consider, that when these children are 20, their mothers will be well over 70. They will not have grandparents, and in some cases the parents who raised them will be gone
The National Vital Statistics division of the CDC recently released is Births: Final Data for 2014 report. In it, the authors wrote:
There were 743 births to women aged 50 and over in 2014, up from 677 in 2013. The number of births to women in this age group has generally increased since 1997 (144), when data for women aged 50 and over became available again. The birth rate for women age 50–54 was 0.6 births per 10,000 women in 2014, unchanged from 2013 . Because of the small number of births to women in this age group, the birth rate for women aged 50–54 is expressed per 10,000 women. For rates shown elsewhere in this report, births to women aged 50 and over are included with births to women aged 45–49 when computing birth rates by age of mother (the denominator for the rate is women aged 45–49).
The mean age for first births was 26.3 in 2014, up from 26 in 2013.
At least one scientist is anxious about the trend. The AARP reported:
Skeptics wonder about the life span of the new 50-ish mother, and they also fear parents might not “possess the requisite stamina,” said Bonnie Steinbock, a bioethicist and professor emeritus at the University at Albany in New York. “They wonder how she will handle a recalcitrant toddler in the terrible twos,” Steinbock said. “Will she be able to relate? Will the child feel embarrassed because the parents look like everyone else’s grandparents?” Others believe it is “unnatural” to use IVF technology in older women, that science is usurping the natural order.
Are the women or science to blame?
Science may carry the age of women who give birth as high as 60, or more.
A woman in India could make the record books as one of the oldest ever to give birth.
Daljinder Kaur, who’s believed to be at least 70 years old, gave birth to a son named Arman (meaning “wish” in Hindi) on April 19. The baby was the first for Kaur and her 79-year-old husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, after nearly five decades of marriage.
“I feel blessed to be able to hold my own baby. I had lost hope of becoming a mother ever,” said Kaur, who underwent two years of IVF treatment and had two failed attempts earlier.
When her child reaches 20, the mother will probably be dead, leaving open the question of who will raise the children.
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