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Pregnant women over 35 are sometimes categorized by doctors with a term that doesn\u2019t characterize their true age: \u201cgeriatric pregnancy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a term that Naomi Cahn\u2014a professor<\/a> of family law at the University of Virginia and George Washington University, who had both of her children after she was 35\u2014calls \u201coutdated,\u201d adding that \u201c35 is not the magic dividing line that we might think.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sure enough, the term<\/a> \u201cgeriatric pregnancy\u201d has sparked<\/a> backlash<\/a> for conjuring an image of a ticking biological clock during a time when women already face a lot of pressure to have children. While traditional ideals may lead one to believe older pregnancies are rare, they actually account for nearly 20% of pregnancies in the country\u2014with 11% of those being first-time pregnancies, according<\/a> to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rise<\/a> in older-age pregnancies, up 900% over the past five decades, marks a shift in women who are waiting for financial or emotional stability before making the commitment of raising a child.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why more women are having children later in life<\/strong><\/p>\n Cahn knew she wanted to have children since she was in her early 20s, but she wanted to wait until she finished law school before trying to conceive.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1983, she graduated from Columbia University School of Law at the age of 25, and then began a job hunt that\u2019s all too relatable for new graduates, spending the subsequent five years moving through the ranks of jobs at six different law firms. She didn\u2019t feel she could rely on those jobs to afford a child, though. And besides that, she was dealing with infertility issues that were expensive to afford.\u00a0<\/p>\n When she finally gave birth to her first child via in vitro fertilization (IVF), she was in her mid-30s and had just secured a law professor position at George Washington University, which she described as a \u201cstable, long-term job that was designed to lead to tenure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Cahn\u2019s journey is familiar to many other women who are waiting to reach a slightly older age bracket before trying to conceive. More than half of U.S babies born in 2023 had mothers who were older than 30, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data<\/a>, and birth rates for women in their 30s are at higher levels than in the past four decades, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center report<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cahn said the growing population of women who defer having children until they are financially stable and have a partner who is also committed to investing in children can be understood by a \u201cblue family model<\/a>,\u201d named to reflect families who plan for children based on their earning capacity and reciprocal investments from both parents, compared to a \u201cred\u201d family model, rooted in religious teaching and longstanding cultural morals, according to Cahn\u2019s research<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s based on the idea that there are increasing financial returns to higher education, she said, and that more women seek financial stability before having a child \u201cto make sure you can invest all of the resources you want to with your children.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The fact that birth rates are rising amongst women over 35, she said, \u201cseems to be in accord with that model.\u201d When you\u2019re younger, she said, pregnant women tend to face more workplace challenges<\/a>, including fewer promotions, bigger wage gaps, and inadequate paid time off. What\u2019s more, less than half of employed women with higher incomes said their employers offered paid family and medical leave, and that number drops to 33% of women with lower incomes, according to an analysis<\/a> by KFF, a health policy research group.\u00a0<\/p>\n Financial security is important not only for the future of the child, but also for mothers navigating the unpredictable complications of pregnancy. Indeed, infertility now affects one in five Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unexpected complications were the case for Cahn, who was told she needed bedrest for 15 weeks after doctors were concerned she would have a premature delivery.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHad I been in a position that would not have allowed me to take time off,\u201d she would have been unemployed at a pivotal moment in her pregnancy, she said, warning it\u2019s a situation many other pregnant women face.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>If you\u2019re in a temporary job, gig job, or in one that doesn\u2019t provide benefits, you would not have had that flexibility,\u201d she said. And alarmingly, maternity-leave offerings are declining, according to a report<\/a> by The Best Place for Working Parents<\/a>, a community forum of business leaders. The report found that companies are discontinuing maternity leave as a standard employee benefit, and the share of companies offering them dropped from 82.2% before the pandemic to about 73% in 2021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At least in the medical community, though, things are changing for the better about how we characterize pregnancies. The medical community has been phasing out<\/a> the term \u201cgeriatric pregnancy,\u201d and its replacement term, \u201cadvanced maternal age,\u201d is meant to better characterize the pregnancy risk factors<\/a>, like gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, preeclampsia or premature birth, that come with each passing decade in a woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n New guidelines<\/a> set by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists emphasize that pregnancy risks should be characterized in five-year age groups\u2014like ages 35-40, 40-44, etc.\u2014rather than one collective maternal age group that applies to anyone past age 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are different reasons for having children after age 35,\u201d Cahn said, with infertility issues and financial security just a few. Beyond<\/a> that, she acknowledged a particularly tricky double standard women often face while deciding to have kids\u2013do it soon before the biological clock runs out, or do it later once you have enough means to provide a child.\u00a0<\/p>\n It means the old\u2013and often hated\u2013advice rings true: \u201cThere is no right time to think about having children.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSubscribe to Well Adjusted, our newsletter full of simple strategies to work smarter and live better, from the Fortune Well team. Sign up<\/a> for free today.<\/div>\n