At what age is it better to give birth? Opinion doctors. Female horror stories: "old primordial" here and in the US

What is the attitude of the “old primiparas” in the USA? Is there a fundamental difference in the approach of medical personnel in relation to "age-giving women" in Russia or Ukraine and the United States? And finally, what is the average age of childbirth in America considered normal? We will try to discuss these issues in this article.

"The old primipara". Today, this term sounds softer, “age-giving birth first”, and is applied to women over 35 years old, although just a few years ago a girl who has reached 25 years old could hear such a “compliment” in her address. Well, let me congratulate you: you won back the right to remain young, including women in labor, for another ten years. But some midwives and obstetrician-gynecologists, from time to time, but also pronounce it in someone's address. So what is meant by this definition?

The risk of fetal infection is low for late and late mothers. However, the use of proper treatment in mothers before 16 weeks of pregnancy should prevent fetal infection. No treatment of syphilis in 40% of cases will result in fetal death, premature death, perinatal death, or congenital syphilis. Retrospective studies have shown that 21% of pregnancies in mothers with fetal death led to miscarriage or birth of a dead newborn, 13% of births in the first 2 months of life, 43% of newborns with congenital syphilis and 23% of births a healthy child.

Late childbirth statistics are not much different in the USA, Europe and Russia or Ukraine.

According to statistics, the average age of women who give birth to a first-born child, along with the overall life expectancy, is steadily increasing throughout the world. In Russia, it is 24.6 years, reaching 28 years in some regions, in the EU countries it ranges from 25.7-25.8 years (in Bulgaria and Romania) to 30.4-30.6 years (in Spain and Italy ). In the US, the average age of primiparas is 26.3 years and has significant variations depending on ethnic origin: 23.1 among Alaskans and Native Indians and 29.5 years among Asians and the population of Pacific islands. Thus, as can be seen from the above data, women living in Russia and the CIS countries are not some kind of exception, but rather, on the contrary, organically fit into the current global trend. Ask your mother at what age did she give birth to her first child? In most cases, according to the same statistics, we will get an answer that will be less for a couple of years than you did or plan to do.

As in the case of the above data, the most common situation is a newborn with no clinical signs of disease, but with a positive test for syphilis. It is currently believed that testing for syphilis in early terms  pregnancy is economically viable and recommended for routine pregnancy tests.

Care - the first stage of development of speech in the child. Usually occurs between the first and third months of a child’s life, when the child can keep his head straight. A two-year rebellion is a behavioral syndrome of a small child, occurring between about one and one month old. Than demographically - the periodic decrease in the number.

It is quite interesting that at almost the same age of first birth among women in the Russian Federation, the CIS countries and the USA, the ratio of women in the age group over 30 years of age significantly differs, mainly due to the number of repetitive. In the Russian Federation, the majority of Russian families have two children, in the United States at least three, which causes a higher coefficient among the aged women in this country. Naturally, this can not but reflect on a more positive attitude in society to women in labor, whose age varies about 40 years.

Late maternity is becoming more common among Polish women. The late motherhood of Polish women is part of a process that we have been dealing with for several years: in Poland, the number of children is drastically reduced. Women give birth to them less and later decide on them. Behind us are only 12 countries.

Why do women suffer pregnancy?

Why do the Poles decide and what does he have after one year of his life? Patients for various reasons postponed the pregnancy later. They had no partner, they waited to stabilize the material situation. They appear in my office at the age of forty - Wojciech Gontarek, obstetrician-gynecologist from the Demeter clinic in Warsaw, notes.

According to obstetrician gynecologists, childbirth after 30-35 years is more often accompanied by any pathology, which is quite logical. By this age, we are often burdened by the burden of illness, their chronic forms and complications. This applies not only to somatic pathology, but also to gynecological diseases. Taking care of your reproductive health, visiting a gynecologist, contraception issues and others often fade into the background against the background of solving urgent problems. In the Russian Federation, the average age of abortion is 19 years, miscarriage is 23 years old, which reduces the already low probability of pregnancy in the first monthly cycle with regular sex life: from 25 years old it gradually decreases from 30% and reaches 5-10% by 44 years.

They fear that after returning they may differ from the level of knowledge of colleagues who have not had a break in their professional career. They do not want to lose their jobs. College graduates plan to find a job immediately after graduation, to be active in their profession for at least several years, to work out their position and only after that can they afford their first child. Then most often it comes easy.

Another reason why Poles postpone motherhood for later is also related to work — this is a question of the financial situation. According to the "Social Diagnosis" - the largest case study in Poland, conducted by prof. Janusz Chapinski - as many as 3 million Poles under one year old would like to have at least one child. This does not mean that Polish women do not want to have children - they would give birth if they had adequate material and social conditions. 45 percent of Polish women point to the lack of material protection as the reason for their late motherhood, as a result of which the pregnancy becomes the same.

The aging mechanisms established by nature lead to an increase in anovulatory cycles, and the accumulation of mutations and genetic damage by the cell causes an increased risk of having a child with genetic abnormalities, including Down syndrome.

Late delivery in the US and with us

Natural childbirth after 35 years are often pathological in nature, and therefore often resolved by surgery cesarean section. In the Russian Federation, the percentage of operative labor, according to various sources, ranges from 18 to 28%, in Brazil and Germany it reaches 50%, despite the fact that WHO recommends resorting to surgical intervention in only 15% of cases. In the United States, a policy has been pursued since 2007 aimed at reducing the number of operational deliveries, which has so far yielded an average national result of 32%. This figure varies widely by state: the lowest in Utah is 18.3%, one of the highest 32.6% in Florida, which is associated with the mentality of the population. It is proved that the risk of complications after operative labor, despite the existing powerful medical arsenal in developed countries, is 1.5–2% higher than during delivery through the birth canal. In this aspect, an important role is played by the professionalism of the obstetrician-gynecologist, who is precisely to conduct the pregravid preparation correctly and to take birth, taking into account all sorts of factors, with the lowest risk of complications for the mother and the child.

About 43 percent of Poles talk about their parenthood. This thesis would confirm the news coming to Poland from the UK. In England and Wales, Polish women bring the most children from all foreigners. In the UK, an average of 2, 1 child, in Poland - 1, thanks to the support they receive from the state, they are not afraid to give birth, and the first child often appears after one year of life.

In Poland, we have the deceased motherhood. Polish women understand this. childbirth after childbirth. Kotovsk from the Institute of Statistics and Demography of the Warsaw School of Economics. It also happens that later marriage was not postponed at all. Some couples are found only after each partner transplants his future offspring. Kapsky shows that this situation affects every fifth pole. Later motherhood in Poland is no longer a rarity, and no one is surprised anymore.

Summarizing the above, I note that in most developed countries, childbirth after 35 years has long become the accepted norm and the diagnosis - the old primipara, so relevant in Russia, for Europe and the United States, has long lost its meaning. Of course, such women in labor require more attention from doctors, but they are much more responsible in monitoring their pregnancy, and the material base created by the long-awaited moment allows not only to undergo an in-depth examination in case of revealed pathology, but also to conclude a contract for childbirth both in Russia and abroad.

A 25-year-old child has a better chance of getting pregnant and having healthy baby. On the other hand, when it comes to women after or even, it is argued that their pregnancy can carry a high risk. The list of possible risks is long: premature birth. It is also possible that the woman who chose late pregnancy was diagnosed with undiagnosed disease. Diabetes, high blood pressure, carbohydrate intolerance, heart disease. You should also add that getting pregnant is not that easy.

Only 5 percent of women over one year old have a chance. At this age, hormonal parameters move to menopause. He starts to miss his balls, - adds Dr. Med. How to take care of pregnancy and how to avoid complications that may arise as a result of late maternity? First of all, it is important to test regularly. Before the week of pregnancy once every 3 weeks, later - once every 2 weeks. The most important is the time before pregnancy, because then the organs and systems of the fetus are formed.

The average age of a woman during first birth increases every year. With the trend in modern childbirth we understand from the point of view of medicine and psychology.

Not so long ago, in our country, a girl who gave birth after 25 years was considered “old-born”. The average age of women for whom childbirth becomes the first in Russia is growing and, thereby, brings us closer to Europe, where the first birth after 30 is the absolute norm. Today, future parents are trying first to strengthen their rear, to create a solid foundation - to acquire their own housing and a permanent income that satisfies their needs, and then have children. We talked with specialists - an obstetrician-gynecologist of the most advanced perinatal center in Russia and a psychologist, a member of the Federation of Psychological Counselors of Russia - and made sure that modern world The age of the woman for the first birth does not play a key role, and the concept of "old-born" has lost all meaning.

It is advisable to rest, go to bed, even at the beginning of pregnancy. Not only in late maternity, but also with every pregnancy it is helpful to stop smoking, drinking coffee, tea. You can turn these drinks into water and fresh juices. It is better to eat less, but more often.

Is motherhood more aware?

You should not eat meals that cause digestive problems. You have to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, says Dr. Med. When it comes to late maternity, apart from mentioning possible unions, it is noted that such motherhood is very conscious.

“The woman’s age at childbirth and its advantage is an interesting question, and you can’t find the answer to it by simple medical formulas,” the obstetrician-gynecologist of the maternity ward says. and I . - Nature is conceived in such a way that a woman is ready for conception and, as a correspondence, to childbearing from the moment of the first menstruation to the last. For us, this sounds somewhat wildly, because we live in a cultural society, where it is not customary to give birth at 12-13 and 14 years old, but there are nationalities and peoples for whom this is the norm, as they live for thousands of years. The culture of our country, church canons and the state dictate later marriage and procreation. ”

This is not the case when mom can say that one way or another will. From my observations it is also clear that we have, who have decided late about the child, to take very much care of themselves. Among the advantages of late education can be mentioned the stabilized material situation. As a rule, parents older than one year have a permanent job, many years of professional experience. They are not newcomers in the labor market. At this age, the solutions are different. It turned out that late motherhood is not so bad. Older children have a higher level of intelligence than peers, are healthier, less injured and need inpatient care.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the parents of the firstborn are getting older from year to year. In 2015, newly minted moms and dads in the capital most often became at the age of 30-34 years old, reports with reference to the state budgetary institution “Analytical Center”. This age group accounted for 89.9 thousand mothers and fathers, while only 22.9 thousand Muscovites became young parents under 24 years old in 2015. At the age of 25-29 years, 86.4 thousand residents of the capital became mothers and fathers of the firstborn. At the age of over 35 years old parents in pro73.4 thousand Muscovites began this year, and at the age of 45 years - 7.2 thousand. It is worth noting that only a year earlier, in 2014, albeit with a slight margin, the age group 25 -29 years.

Studies have also shown that women who choose late pregnancies, raised children with great calm. This is a question completely independent of the age of the mother, ”she added. As the statistics show, Polish women are increasingly postponing motherhood, and this is the decision to become pregnant with their first child.

Over the past 30 years, Poland has experienced significant changes in the process of family formation and decay. For a generation of children to be as large as the parental generation, each woman must give birth to an average of two children. This is one of the lowest in Europe.

On average in Russia, the age of birth of the first child, as well as in Europe as a whole, is growing steadily, but has not yet exceeded the thirty-year mark, currently 27.2 years (for comparison, in 1980 this figure was 23 years).

Progress in medicine does not stand still. More modern technologies are being introduced, new methods of conducting pregnancy are emerging, which allow women to give birth successfully and at a later age than we used to think. Therefore, what seemed like a deviation from the norm 10-20 years ago is now the norm.

From a family point of view, women whom they later become pregnant will have fewer children, and most children will not have brothers and sisters. Many women also find it difficult to get pregnant. With age, the risk of having a child with genetic defects increases. With age, the risk of complications and various diseases in the mother increases. Sometimes it turns out that for various reasons it is already too late, which indicates the place of our campaign. This leads to the fact that many women suffer from feelings of non-fulfillment in this area of ​​life.

There are also serious social consequences of delaying pregnancy. First of all, the presence of a small number of children leads to an aging population, where fewer and fewer young people work for retirees, and, as a result, pension systems become insufficient. When the average number of children in a family is less than 2, 1, the population decreases. If the offspring decide to have older mothers - then the children have shorter healthy and elastic parents and even shorter parents.

“According to testimony of fertility doctors, absolute infertility does not happen. Therefore, the scope of the usual extended, and the first birth at the age of 42, 46, 53 or 56 years is not news and not casuistry, - says Natalia Tsalko. - From a medical point of view, there is no one common comfort situation, the doctor must be prepared for any complication in each patient. And at the age of 18 there can be childbirth with a cesarean section, and at the age of 42 one can give birth to oneself. This is the observation of practicing obstetrician-gynecologists. Therefore, do not try to find answers in the dry numbers of statistics, life is more interesting than it seems! General trends are now bringing us closer to Europe - late marriage, late children. By the way, the words “late” or “old-born” in relation to pregnant women have been officially banned in obstetrics for many years. ”

Why do Polish women postpone motherhood?

No permanent job and apartment. Lack of stability and access to benefits. Private housing gives you the opportunity to live independently of your parents, although it is interesting, research shows that it is especially important not only to live independently of your parents, but also to live in your own home. Renting an apartment makes it difficult to make a decision about your child as much as you live with your parents. Apartment "on your own" significantly increases the tendency of the couple to plan for offspring.

Over the past few decades, the age at which women first become mothers has steadily increased. According to asno   (Eurostat), published in 2015, the average age of birth of the first child in the EU in 2013 was 28.7 years, reports. 51.2% of European women gave birth to their first child aged from 20 to 29 years old, and 40.6% of children aged from 30 to 39 years old. First of all, the first child is given birth in Bulgaria (on average, at 25.7 years), and later all mothers in Europe become in Greece (29.9 years), Luxembourg (30.0 years), Spain (30.4 years) and Italy (30.6 years). In these countries, the largest number of women who gave birth to their first child after 40 years.

Thus, the Poles want to have children, but in order to implement their plans for the development of their kind, they need to be stabilized - among other things. work and apartment. In Poland, the conditions for professional activities and housing for young people are not easy to meet. Since the early 1990s, unemployment — especially among graduates — has been quite high. Add to this the very high cost of owning a home and low housing support for low-income groups, including people from the start of a family.

Dissatisfaction with the material situation. Nevertheless, there are studies that have found a link between leisure intentions and satisfaction with the financial situation of children without children. These studies have shown that positive intentions to have another child, formulated with greater determination towards both sexes, are associated with a good assessment of the material situation. The fact that potential Polish parents are concerned about the economic security of the family and its quality of life adversely affects their decision on the number of children. The report also says that the Polish tax system regards the ownership of children as a luxury that few people can afford.

In developed countries, families are increasingly postponing the birth of children due to career or other reasons. For example, in England and Wales, the proportion of primiparas over 40 years old has tripled - from 4.9 per thousand in 1984 to 14.7 in 2014.

“Closer to 35-40 years old woman has another life task. There is a change of priorities, and quite a strong one, - notes the psychologist, the head and the consultant of the site "". - It is time to think about what has been achieved, what has been achieved, what is my place in the vital system. This is a time of reassessment of values ​​and thoughts about the meaning of life. Naturally, when much has been done, it is possible to pause and think about the continuation of the race. The approach to the birth and upbringing of a child in a woman at a mature age compared with a young girl will be, however, more meaningful and responsible. ”

In this context, it becomes clear why many Poles are postponing a decision about a child as long as he does not have a stable job and income; Often income is at the right level. According to the Center, report it. Adam Smith in Poland has a serious problem of child poverty.

Another problem for women in Poland, which contributes to the postponement of pregnancy and the need for stable work, is extremely unfavorable conditions for combining work with childcare. Compared to other countries of the European Union, Poland has one of the lowest values ​​in the index of conditions that allows combining work with childcare. There is not enough space in kindergartens and kindergartens, i.e. childcare facilities, short and low paid leave, inadequate incentives for silent leave or low flexibility of working time.

“The reproductive age of women has long been close to the forty-year mark. There are women whose first child is born at 40 years old. And now it really has ceased to be a deviation from the norm, ”says Marina Smovzh. “It is interesting that some thirty years ago, a woman who decided to give birth to a child after 40, the lady society looked with disbelief, apprehension, regret and ridicule. It was very characteristic of our country. And I am glad that now this “trend” is in the past. We are approaching the standards of childbirth, which have long been tacitly accepted in the rest of the civilized world, ”a practicing psychologist shares his opinion.

Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Minnesota, after analyzing data from 72 thousand women in the United States, who were seen by doctors for 12 years as part of a national study of women's health, concluded that health indicators of women who gave birth after 40 years of age were inferior to those of more young women in labor. However, the very likelihood of health problems still remained small. For example, mortality from cardiovascular diseases increased from 2.3 percent among women who gave birth to young, to 3.9 percent among those who became mother later. The risk of a heart attack increased from 2.5 to 3 percent, ischemic stroke from 2.4 to 3.8 percent, and hemorrhagic stroke from 0.5 to 1 percent, reports citing.

“We already knew that women aged more often than young people experience health problems during pregnancy,” said lead researcher, Professor Adnan Qureshi. - Now we know the consequences late childbirth  may manifest in the future. They are due to the fact that women over 40 are more likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol. ”

“The higher the patient's age, the more prepared we treat her childbirth, conducting a full range of research, which avoids many complications during childbirth,” comments Natalia Tsalko.

“The birth of a child at a later age does not contradict the psychological development of a person,” says psychologist Marina Smovzh. - Having flown out of the parental nest, at the age of 20-25 years, we have a definite development task - achieving our own social success, creating a comfortable living environment. This is connected with the desire of many young people to build a career, to take strong positions in the circle of their peers, to ensure financial flows, and only then to think about the children. This is normal when up to 35-36 years old the main reference point for a person is his social status. According to my observations, in most cases, it is young mothers who have not passed the period of social development until the end, most often rush to work almost immediately after the birth of children. I now do not take into account the difficult financial situation of the parents or the situation of the urgent need to be present in the office, for example, if the mother is the head of the company. ”

“Of course, a woman after childbirth will have to change a lot in her habits,” the psychologist notes. - And it is possible that these changes will be accepted by the newly-made mother is not easy. A woman can approach more creatively to include the baby in her daily life, and not just leave it to her grandmother or nanny. ”

According to Marina Smovzh, postpartum depression is possible both at the young age of the mother, and at the older one. Our expert notes that these are very individual situations, and there cannot be a general answer and general recommendations, because there can be a lot of reasons for depression, and reducing them only to the fact that mother has to change her active social life to monotonous daily procedures will be incorrect.

A group of researchers from the University. Erasmus of Rotterdam, analyzed data on pregnancies and births of more than 58 thousand women since the 1970s, and came to the conclusion that if a woman wants to give birth to three children, she should give birth to a first-born child no later than 23 years. If you want to become a mother of two children, you should start no later than 27 years old, and you can give birth to your first and only child at 32 years old. In all the above cases, the probability of successful development of the situation and the birth of all planned children will be more than 90%, reports.

Speaking about the current situation with the age of women in labor in our country at the moment, for which the child becomes the first, obstetrician-gynecologist of the Clinical Hospital Lapino Natalya Tsalko notes that there is a separation in society. “We have tracked this in practice when working in municipal maternity hospitals with free obstetric care, where all doctors of the Clinical Hospital Lapino underwent compulsory practice,” says N. Tsalko. - We observed a large number of young primiparas - from 11-year-old girls - these are isolated cases, up to 14-16 years old. I do not want to offend anyone, but childbirth at that age, with rare happy exceptions, occurs in children from asocial families. The outcome of such births can be different - often babies waited for the baby house, the young mother returned for the school desk, and in some families the grandchildren were given out for their own children, considering that the newly made grandmothers and grandfathers didn’t have many years, without hiding anything. As a rule, these were incomplete marriages; we seldom saw 14-16 year old fathers.

An expert from the Clinical Hospital Lapino noted that girls under the age of 17 are considered young primiparas, their parents are obliged to attend births in order to make a possible important decision.

“If we talk about the practice based on the experience of childbirth at the Clinical Hospital Lapino, then the majority of our patients are now in 30 years. These are full, friendly, organic families, where husband and wife are partners. They could study together, work together, achieve success and, having earned wealth and rising up the career ladder, thought about the continuation of the race, ”Dr. Tsalko shared her experience.

Psychologist Marina Smovzh notes that there is another factor that lies in every woman’s unconscious - the fear of old age and maturity. “If you look at the age of 40-45 years old - this is the threshold zone of the onset of menopause. For a woman, this is a clear proof that life is coming to a close. Men do not have such a "symptom of old age", for example. Therefore, the birth of a child at a later age is also a confirmation of a long life for a woman, ”the manager explained

Summarizing the words of experts, it can be concluded that at the moment the best age for the first birth is the one when youyou want and can give birth.