The lifespan of the average person has changed, and so has the level of comfort in life. And at the same time, priorities changed. Thanks to the development of medicine, a woman can choose the appropriate time for pregnancy, decide to give birth to a child after she has created all the conditions for his life, and is psychologically ready for motherhood. But bearing a child later in life comes with certain health risks. What are the features of pregnancy after 40 years and is it too late to give birth at this time?
First pregnancy after 40 years
The first pregnancy after 40 years, in essence, is not much different from the first pregnancy at 20 years old: the same risks, the same features, the same consumption of resources of the mother’s body.
But the resources of women 20 and 40 years old will be different.
Despite the fact that each person’s body is individual, there is a certain range of problems that most women face during late pregnancy.
The main problem of late pregnancy is a lower chance of conceiving a child. By the age of 40-45, the follicular reserve of the ovaries begins to deplete, and the ovaries themselves begin to respond less strongly to hormones. Research shows that changes in the reproductive system can begin long before menopause, as early as 35 years of age. The blood supply to the organs of the reproductive system decreases, and the condition of the endometrium worsens. The diseases that a woman suffered during her life and the medications she took also affect the ability to get pregnant. Naturally, at twenty years old this list will be much shorter than at forty.
But it is worth considering that statistics show the situation on average, so many women continue to have high fertility after 40 years. In addition, modern medicine can solve many of the problems listed above and increase the likelihood of conception.
The second problem is the risk of developing genetic diseases in the unborn child. The older a woman is, the higher the likelihood of having a child with Down syndrome and other genetic disorders.
The third problem is chronic and hidden diseases and depletion of resources.
Pregnancy at any age is a test for the body; it takes a significant amount of energy, involves physical activity, and restructuring of the entire body. Therefore, the worse a woman’s health, the heavier it will be for her to carry a child. Diseases of bones and joints, problems with the circulatory system (for example, hypertension), hormonal imbalance, hidden diseases, untreated inflammation - all this will greatly complicate pregnancy and childbirth. But at forty, not all women can boast of excellent health. To allow yourself to give birth to a healthy child after 40 years, a woman needs to take care of her health and get in good shape.
Liberty
Sometimes those who feel that they themselves are children do not want to become parents. In order to buy radio-controlled helicopters, you don’t need to have a son, and you can tie bows and braid your hair yourself. A woman is afraid of losing her subtlety, losing freedom, being tied to home, turning into a boring mother hen, but it is much more terrible to become an adult, and the status of a mother will automatically make her one. Torn jeans on the hips and T-shirts with Che Guevara... A baby in her arms turns a mother dressed in this way from an ageless girl into an infantile woman. And this scares many people so much that giving up childbearing, which sometimes flows into the childfree philosophy, seems to be the only way out.
Risks of late pregnancy
The risk of losing a child is a risk of any pregnancy, but with age the number of negative factors increases. And acquired chronic diseases largely influence this. Diabetes, hypertension, diseases of the endocrine system, undiagnosed chronic diseases of the reproductive system - all this can lead to miscarriage, premature birth or missed abortion.
Another risk directly related to age is genetic diseases in children. The older the woman, the higher this probability. Moreover, a fairly significant contribution to the problem of genetic diseases is made by “implicit threats” - constant electromagnetic radiation, polluted air, smoking (including passive smoking), inhalation of exhaust fumes, contact with pesticides. All these factors provoke an excess of free radicals (oxidative stress), which have the ability to damage the genetic material of men and women. But if a man’s genetic material, enclosed in sperm, is completely renewed after three months, then a woman’s supply of eggs is laid at birth. But free radicals are especially dangerous for a maturing egg, because it is the one that will give rise to a new life. It is the possibility of genetic diseases in a child, according to experts, that is the most serious risk of pregnancy after 40 years. Therefore, pregnant women over forty years of age are strongly recommended to do all the necessary screenings in order to find out in advance about fetal developmental anomalies.
The load on a woman’s body, which lasts 9 months, will also not pass without consequences. First of all, this is an increased load on the hip joints, hormonal imbalances, changes in blood circulation, and the need for a variety of additional support (including taking vitamins and minerals).
Love
Sometimes the birth of children is postponed indefinitely due to the fact that partners want to devote some time to each other and perceive marriage as a space where a third person is superfluous, capable of dividing them. Mixed with this is a reluctance to give love, time and energy to anyone other than a husband or wife. The initiator of such concepts is usually a man who gradually leads his beloved to the conclusion that each other is enough for them to be happy, and children will come between them.
Young fathers rarely plunge into caring for their baby with such intensity that they forget about their wife, but with new mothers this happens much more often, so a man’s anxiety is understandable. Also, a similar scenario sometimes unfolds in families where the man already has a child from his first marriage, and the experience gained with his first child was difficult or even traumatic. In addition, we are usually talking about those who are well over 40 and even over 50, and the fear of change and the need for peace and stability are already very strong. The danger is that the wife, if she is young and childless, may sooner or later be overwhelmed by the desire for motherhood, and the knot will be tied even tighter.
How to give birth to a healthy baby after 40
In order to give birth to a healthy child, first of all, you should prepare for pregnancy. And not only psychologically, but also to put the body in order. Even before pregnancy, you should start taking vitamin and mineral complexes with iodine and folic acid. The deficiency of these substances especially affects the first stages of fetal formation, when a woman cannot yet know about her pregnancy. You can choose to receive the specialized Pregnoton complex. It is intended for women with reduced fertility and contains not only a set of vitamins and minerals for the reproductive system, but also arginine, which improves blood supply to the pelvic organs.
To increase the chances of having a healthy child after 40 years of age, it is advisable to protect the ovaries from free radicals that can damage the genetic material of maturing eggs. This will help make a complex of antioxidants. For example, Synergin is designed specifically to protect the reproductive system; it can be taken both in preparation for conception and during pregnancy. Synergin contains natural antioxidants for the body in effective dosages.
Preparing for pregnancy after 40
In order to properly prepare for pregnancy after 40 years, you should:
- contact a gynecologist or reproductive specialist to outline the range of studies necessary to determine the condition of the expectant mother’s body;
- cure all diseases in advance if they are detected;
- take specialized complexes and antioxidants to avoid deficiency of essential substances and protect genetic material from damage;
- if this does not go against the doctor’s instructions, start exercising the complex for pregnant women;
- normalize weight to reduce stress on joints and spine.
Money
Welfare for many is an important condition for having children. A woman, of course, should feel protected by a strong man’s back or a stable salary, confident in the future, before she decides to give up contraception. However, the reality is that crazy behavior is characteristic of youth, while caution and attention to detail are considered a sign of maturity. When it comes to pregnancy, childbirth and children, we cannot calculate everything down to the smallest detail, because a professional team of doctors, yoga, courses for pregnant women and a contract for childbirth in the most expensive clinic do not guarantee a smooth pregnancy, an easy birth, or a healthy child. . And it is much more difficult for an adult who stands firmly on his own two feet to consciously turn his world upside down than for a carefree student.
Conclusion: is it possible to give birth after 40?
Is it worth giving birth after 40 years? Just a hundred years ago the answer to this question would have been no. But modern medicine has made a big step forward, minimizing the risks of pregnancy, regardless of the age of the expectant mother. In many European countries, the term “late birth” is no longer used as outdated, since the average age of first pregnancy is 36-40 years.
Timely preparation, taking care of your health, carefully following the doctor’s instructions - all this can be the key to the birth of a healthy and desired child.
THIS IS NOT AN ADVERTISING. THE MATERIAL WAS PREPARED WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF EXPERTS.
Job
A career, contrary to the beliefs of the conservative part of our society, is not only an attempt to earn all the money that exists. This is an image and style of life, a constant striving for the ideal, a kind of game of chess with oneself. This is the habit of satisfaction that follows the search for answers, sleepless nights in the office or operating room, perfecting combinations, polishing skills.
Leaving work, spending most of the time outside of their professional activities, swimming in the slow and calm waters of everyday life and caring for a baby can be unbearable for those who are accustomed to high levels of adrenaline and serotonin.
Society still accepts the concept that a small child ties his parents, or at least his mother, to the home and does not allow him to leave even for a minute. However, slings and breastfeeding allow you to get rid of not only the bulky stroller that takes up half the apartment, but also the feeling of being locked within four walls. You can run after a one-year-old terrorist all day long, taking away his passports and lighters, or you can simply remove all valuables so that they do not cause a desire to immediately examine them. You can cry over a wall with designer silk wallpaper painted with a marker, or you can paint the walls in a neutral color in advance and once a month, with two strokes of a roller, return the apartment to its original appearance.
Organism
According to sociological surveys recently conducted in England, the majority of respondents believe that youth ends at 50, and old age comes only at 75.
In this way, society reacts to increasing the duration and improving the quality of life. The number of citizens over 60 years of age who take an active social and political position is growing. Pensioners no longer limit their leisure time to solving crossword puzzles and annual trips to the waters. Modern medicine and cosmetology can give a person the opportunity to feel and look 30 shortly before retirement, but are not able to turn him into a thirty-year-old. Chromosomal aberrations do not pay attention to the number of wrinkles on your face, chronic diseases come without an invitation, and tissue collagen, on the contrary, leaves without warning. Preeclampsia is outrageously indifferent to the talents of your cosmetologist, the mistakes of youth are not going to leave us, and the hypothalamic-pituitary system did not bother to familiarize itself with the opinion of the British regarding the period of youth. No discrimination, nothing personal - just the natural course of life.
