Table of contents:
- Plus minus pregnancy at various ages
- Pregnancy in your 20s
- Pregnancy in your 30s
- Pregnancy over 35
- Pregnancy over 40
- Age over 45
Age may be one of the considerations when deciding to get pregnant. For some women, age may not be a problem when their health is maintained. However, in general, the older a woman is at pregnancy, the greater the risk to her health and pregnancy.
Plus minus pregnancy at various ages
Although older pregnant women can still maintain their health and their pregnancy, they still have an increased risk of health conditions. Pregnant women with older age have an increased risk of complications, such as gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, which will affect their pregnancy. Even the most undesirable thing can happen, namely a miscarriage. Well, before you plan a pregnancy, you should first know the pluses and minuses of being pregnant at various ages.
Pregnancy in your 20s
Plus:
This is a woman's childbearing age so it is the best time to get pregnant. Physically, a woman's body condition is in prime condition to experience a pregnancy at this age. The risk of complications during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and miscarriage is still low. Research shows that in their 20s the risk of developing gestational diabetes is half that of a woman who is pregnant at the age of 40. The rate of miscarriage at this age is still low, around 9.5%. Babies are also less likely to have birth defects, such as Down syndrome (1 in 1667 births) or other chromosomal disorders (1 in 526 births). This is because the egg is still relatively young, so the level of susceptibility to chromosomal abnormalities is still small.
In your 20s, you have about a 20% chance every month of getting pregnant after sexual intercourse. If you exercise regularly and maintain your diet, the process of giving birth will run easier and you will be able to get your body back to normal shape faster than older pregnant women.
Minus:
However, the downside is that some women may not be emotionally ready to get pregnant. At this age, usually most women still focus on marriage and career rather than other parts of their lives. Bringing in a third person to their newly formed small family may be a bit difficult for some women. Also, some women in their 20s may not want to change their body shape after pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Body image problems during pregnancy may be a bigger problem for most women in their 20s compared to older women.
Pregnancy in your 30s
Plus:
Stepping on the age of 30, your fertility level begins to decline gradually. However, if you plan to have children by way of in vitro fertilization (IVF), the success rate is higher than at an older age.
Based on the research, women who gave birth to their first child at the age of 34 years will be 14 years younger than women who already have children at the age of 18 years in terms of health. In other words, women who have children in their late teens can develop more health problems than women who have their first child in their early 30s. This is because women who have children in their early 30s are better able to protect themselves from work, relationship, and financial stress or stress that makes them vulnerable to biological and psychological health problems.
In their 30s, they still have a lot of stamina and good qualities in parenting. Emotionally, women in their 30s know themselves better than women in their 20s. In addition, having children in your 30s in an economic sense may be better than in your 20s because you have more time to advance your career and prepare your finances.
Minus:
However, in your early 30s, the chances of getting pregnant are slightly lower than in your 20s. The rate of miscarriage at this age is slightly higher than in your 20s, around 12%. The incidence of Down syndrome (1 in 952 births) or other chromosomal disorders (1 in 385 births) in babies born to women in their 30s is also slightly higher than in women in their 20s. Also, the rate of delivery by cesarean section is twice as high in pregnant women aged 30-34 years compared to pregnant women in their 20s.
Pregnancy over 35
Plus:Your chances of having twins or more increase at this age. This can happen because you are more mature, so that levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) increase. When this hormonal surge occurs, there is a chance that you may release more than one egg during the cycle, increasing the chances of multiple births. So older women have less chance of conceiving, but if they do, they are more likely to have twins.
Minus:
After the age of 35 years, fertility decreases so that women have difficulty getting pregnant. The risk of developing complications during pregnancy also increases. The risk of developing high blood pressure during pregnancy is doubled and the risk of developing gestational diabetes is two to threefold in pregnant women over 35 years of age. The risk is even higher in women who are overweight. The risk of a cesarean birth also increases at this age.
The risk of miscarriage increases at gestational age over 35 years, which is 18%. The risk of stillbirth also increases in women over 35 years compared to younger women. The risk of babies born with Down syndrome or other chromosomal disorders also increases at this age. You can find out if your baby has a chromosomal abnormality through prenatal screening, but you cannot prevent this from happening during pregnancy.
Pregnancy over 40
Plus:
A new study shows that babies born to women who are over 40 at the time of pregnancy tend to live longer than those who are not. A possible theory to explain this is that estrogen, which is still widely produced in fertile women, has a life-prolonging effect on the heart, bones and other organs. However, less than 1% of women ages 40-44 have babies. The likelihood of getting pregnant after the age of 40 drops to only 5% each month.
Minus:
Being pregnant at this age increases the chances of constipation, pressure on the bladder, the tissue in the uterus and vagina, and also sagging breasts. You can minimize this impact by not becoming overweight during pregnancy and keeping your body active through exercise. How well your pregnancy is in your 40s depends on several factors, such as your fitness level, a healthy lifestyle, and whether this is your first baby.
Miscarriage also increases at this age. This can be caused by the condition of the eggs that are not as good as when you were young, the uterine lining is not thick enough, or the blood supply to the uterus is insufficient. The risk of miscarriage can also occur because placenta previa (the placenta is located low in the uterus) and placental abruption (the placenta is detached from the uterine wall) also increases. The risk of babies having low birth weight (LBW) also increases. In addition, the risk of a baby developing Down syndrome (1 in 106 births) or other chromosomal disorders (1 in 66 births) also increases. This risk will continue to increase at an older age.
At 40, you may have more maturity and patience than when you were in your 20s. But you will have an older age when your child grows up and enters the world of school, maybe this does not give you comfort.
Age over 45
Minus:
The chances of having a baby at this age are very slim. In fact, the percentage of women who have babies at this age is only 3%. More than half of women who get pregnant at this age go through IVF and with donor eggs.
Unfortunately, more than half of all pregnancies in women over the age of 45 have a miscarriage before 20 weeks of gestation. The risk of stillbirth is twice that of women who become pregnant in their 20s. The risk of a baby developing Down syndrome (1 in 30 births) and other chromosomal disorders (1 in 21 births) also increases sharply, and continues to increase in pregnancies at an older age.
Plus:
However, because knowing has a high risk, women who become pregnant at this age will take better care of their health and womb. They will be more worried about the health of their baby so they will be more healthy through a healthy lifestyle and more routine prenatal checks. The better you take care of yourself at this age, the better your pregnancy will be.