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Popular belief and indeed science says that women who become pregnant later in life have complications and face more problems than women in their 20s. While our widely held notion of older women having more troubles during pregnancy may be true, what is also true is that children born to such women are fitter, taller, and smarter than those born to younger women. Sounds incredible? Well, it true, according to a recent study in Sweden.
The Advanced Maternal Ageand Offspring Outcomes: Reproductive Aging and Counterbalancing Period Trends says, that women in developed nations are delaying their pregnancies. The mean age at first birth has increased since 1970 and now it stands at 28.
The study did not focus on older women and how they faced more complications during their pregnancy. What it did focus on was how the babies developed.
After studying more than 1.5 million adults, the results indicated that women who gave birth in their late 30s or 40s had children who were taller, smarter and fitter than those born to moms in their late 20s or early 30s.
While the scientists believe that the potential complications older moms face may be reduced by medical advances, they have indicated that there is no clear guarantee that a child born to a mom who is in her late 30s will have more brain, brawn, and height than his peers.
According to some of the results of the study, people born in the 80s are more aware and make better health decisions than those from 60s.
There is, of course, the fine print that you must pay special attention to. Experts conclude that expecting to have a fitter, smarter, and the taller child does not mean that you delay your pregnancy.
What happens is that a woman’s fertility decreases once she crosses the age of 35, and getting pregnant can be difficult, and in some cases, not possible at all.
What are your thoughts on this study? Tell us here.
