Posted on 09/16/2005 5:14:37 PM PDT by Crackingham
Women should have a family first - before they are 35 - and leave their career until later, a group of leading doctors said yesterday. The obstetricians and gynaecologists said the increasing number of women delaying having children were defying nature and risking heartbreak. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they recommended that if women wanted families and a career, they should have children earlier, and called for more support for younger mothers. Women's groups voiced caution over putting a deadline on childbirth but agreed on the need for more support.
Susan Bewley, consultant obstetrician at St Thomas' Hospital in London, said the doctors were motivated by the number of older women they saw experiencing problems in childbirth. She said: "It is us in the clinic who see the heartbreak, and we cannot help these people when they are running out of time. That is what motivated me to write [the report] and ask the authorities what can be done to help women to do it at a time that suits them."
In Scotland the most common age for giving birth is now 30 to 34. There has also been a steady rise in the proportion of mothers aged 35-plus, from 6 per cent in 1976 to 18.8 per cent last year.
But Dr Bewley said the optimum age to have a child remained between the ages of 20 and 35. She said: "Each woman finds her own solution but we cannot kid ourselves having children at 35 is easy. It is not. It goes wrong for lots of people."
The strongly worded editorial, co-authored by Melanie Davies, a consultant obstetrician from University College hospital, and Peter Braude, head of the department of women's health at St Thomas', pointed out age-related fertility problems increased after the age of 35, and dramatically so after 40.
The editorial claimed employers and health planners were to blame for encouraging women to delay motherhood to focus on careers and financial stability. It called for government and companies to make it easier for women to choose to have children at a younger age, and said: "Free choices cannot be made with partial knowledge, economic disadvantage for mothers, and unsupportive workplaces.
"Doctors and healthcare planners need to grasp this threat to public health and support women to achieve biologically optimal childbearing."
The experts listed a number of complications linked to later motherhood, including pre-eclampsia and increased risk of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies.
They also said that older fathers had decreased fertility, while children of older men had an increased risk of schizophrenia and several genetic disorders.
They wrote: "Women want to 'have it all' but biology is unchanged, deferring defies nature and risks heartbreak. If women want room for manoeuvre they are unwise to wait till their thirties."
Dr Bewley added: "You cannot suddenly emerge at 45 and say, 'Now I want children'. I appreciate we want it all and some will get it. But there is a window for reproduction where there isn't for work."
Maybe we all are better off without your offspring. But if they had turned into something special, you'd feel a lot better about things than you do now. Regards.
Every foster child I had was born to a 15 year old mom who wouldn't/couldn't mother. I've yet to met a girl in that age range with the maturity and emotional stability to be a Mom.
They may have the body and the hormones, but I do believe they need a few more years to become decent parent material.
Thanks, and the best to you, too!
"Your just selfish. You think "things" are more important than passing along your own genes. It's not natural"
Selfish, no, Things, No, just eating and a roof over my head. My genes are not important.
I always figure I have the rest of my life to have a career. I only have a short time to have and spend time with my children.
I agree with this. Girls should get through college, then a family. You're going to change careers a few times anyway, and by the time you're 50 you'll be a different person altogether.
Pregnant women got no emotional stability, anyway :-).
But seriously, a 15-year-old girl today has grown up in a very different environment from a 15-year-old in, say, 1850. Maturity comes through experiences of responsibility, and many children today grow up without any.
Lester is right that it's an unstable situation having so many people who are physically adults, but culturally children. However, to rearrange society so that culture reflected biology would be a big project - sort of like trying to fix things so that 45-year-old women aren't shocked, shocked!, when they find they're not as fertile as 20-year-olds.
The one thing we can be sure of is that any government program or regulation will make things worse!
I like the Joey Ramone remake equally as well.
Kill A Commie For Mommie
Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes
"Several of the few I knew who tried, found themselves in court and kids in jail and supporting their grand kids."
"Maybe we all are better off without your offspring. But if they had turned into something special, you'd feel a lot better about things than you do now"
Hmmm, one Doctor, two policman, and one judge. Yep, mine would be worse.
I kinda agree.
Except the last 15 y/o girl I had (abandoned by her 15 year old mom) had pretty much been given 'adult' responsibilities her whole life-- IOW, she raised herself, cooked her own meals, washed her own clothes etc.... Which was part of her problem. She hadn't a clue about parenting because she hadn't been parented herself.
Yet she was like a cat in heat, DETERMINED to get pregnant before she turned 16-- by ANYONE. Because that what 'adults' did....And the girl didn't have the sense that God gave a gopher. I chased her all OVER the county until she was finally placed in a Catholic girls home (where the nuns could sit on her 24/7).
Personally, I don't forsee our culture going back to child brides, simply because we don't need wives #2 & 3 to fill in for the 40% that used to die in childbirth. A little waiting now just means a little more education and maturity for the Mom.
Excellent points!
Women should stay home and make babies. Period! They should also get permission from their man before the post on FR, and they should speak (write) only when asked.
just kidding ;^)
I gotta rope too ;)
I say PIFFLE to all of it.
I'm calling it a night - but will say I will be turning 45 next week and my only child turned 7 in July........obviously no problems here :)(and daddy turned 50in March)
What do you do for a living? I can tell you this...you'll never earn enough money...never.
Happy birthday (early). My bedtime, too.
It's not only fertility that's an issue, but the incidence of Downs Syndrome. Consider the following:
RELATIONSHIP OF DOWN SYNDROME INCIDENCE TO MOTHERS' AGE
Mothers Age
Incidence of Down Syndrome
Under 30 Less than 1 in 1,000
30 1 in 900
35 1 in 400
36 1 in 300
37 1 in 230
38 1 in 180
39 1 in 135
40 1 in 105
42 1 in 60
44 1 in 35
46 1 in 20
48 1 in 16
49 1 in 12
Source: Hook, E.G., Lindsjo, A. Down Syndrome in Live Births by Single Year Maternal Age.
The reason 15 year-olds are immature and stupid is that we tell them to be immature and stupid. 15 used to be a fine marrying age, good time to start your family; now 15 is allowed to be learning to drive but can't do it on their own, can't vote, can't drink, can barely get a job and then only with MASSIVE restrictions on what they can be called upon to do and their work hours. Tell someone over and over that they're too young for responsibility and guess what's going to happen when a huge responsibility lands in they're lap.
And you can have a great sex life with lots of kids. People who use kids as an excuse to avoid sex just don't like sex enough to make time for it.
"What do you do for a living? I can tell you this...you'll never earn enough money...never"
I'm a mechanic, and a darn good one. HVAC, Electrican. Money is not the issue. WHY does one want kids???????? If I had kids, I would want them to be able to pe Pilots, explorers, Farmers...........alas, those are not needed today. I read somewhere that if you wanted to be a farmer, you better be born on a farm! You won't be able to afford it otherwise.
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