Fertility

[dancerjodi]

Lots of thoughtful stuff here http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/110861/how-older-parenthood-will-upend-american-society# . 

Comments

[futurenurselady.livejournal.com]

I read this article on another site.

I don't see how this is much different than families from past decades who have had several children with wide age-ranges.

Add to that the fact that most people having children later are pretty aware of their health as a matter of course in order to conceive and carry a child, and the extending life expectancy starting with Gen X, and my concerns are way less than the author's.

[dancer.livejournal.com]

Well, the big diff is that folks started younger, so they were able to have several children. My great grandmother started at 15 and had 19 kids. If she started at 45, she only would have had 1 or 2.

As an older Mom (I'll be 38 this summer) I can definitely see a lot of her points, though others I think are a stretch. Definitely something most folks don't talk about. The response I always got was "you are healthy, don't worry". There wasn't anything on paper wrong with either of us, but it did take 2 years and 1 of them with medical intervention to make our daughter. Had someone told me about this say 5 years ago, I may not have delayed as long.