Older moms

More and more women are waiting to start their families, pushing the number of older moms higher.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the birth rate among women ages 35 to 44 more than doubled between 1976 and 2006.

I know that among my friends that are not LDS, I am an anomaly in that I already have a child and more on the way. Most of these friends plan to wait well into their 30s to even think about having kids because they have careers, they got married later or they just think it’s weird to have kids in your 20s.

But I read an interesting article today about the generation of older moms that are now looking at their growing children and wondering if they will be around to see their grandchildren. These moms are doing everything to increase their lifespan and make sure they stick around for the milestones in their children’s lives.

I can imagine it would be stressful to do the math and know you’ll likely be retired by the time your kids graduate high school. But I also think there are a lot of benefits from waiting to have children, such as more education, more life experiences and more personal growth before becoming a mom.

What do you think – what are the pros and cons of waiting to have children until your late 30s or 40s? How long did you wait to start your family and why?