Average age of first-time mothers is now 30 - how old were you?

Younger than average with my first (19)
Just over average with my second (31)
36 with my third

36. In my nhs antenatal group 30 was probably average with the range from about 26 to 36.

30

35 and 10 months to the day. Pure chance, given up on having dc (ttc age 25-28 with exh). Settled with dp, travelled moderately exotically, small house with mortgage. Redundant for 6 months and hey presto, blessed with DS. Unlikely planning would have made a difference, just grateful for what I have.

28, married, mortgaged and both felt time was right.

I was 29 and emotionally immature. Dd made me grow up quick!

Lovely graph and data set EthicalPickle

I was 19 with my first, no regrets - especially with premature ovarian failure at 28!

21

21

Ooh, good work EthicalPickle - thanks for that I enjoy some nice stats

My first at 21 and my last at 46. It was harder on the body the older I was, but I am positive about motherhood at both ages.

Thanks for that EthicalPickle! Interesting that it's close to the national figures.

Just turned 32. I was one of the first among my friends. Good timing IMO.

17

I was bored....

Darn, this was meant to be the 500th post but here are the stats based on this thread so far. I only counted the age when the MN'er had their first baby. The average age came out at 29.5 The histogram shows the distribution of ages. It's funny how much more popular 23 is than 24

Mean, Median, Mode
Count: 443
Sum: 13066
Mean: 29.494356659142
Median: 30
Mode: 29

Data Set:
31, 28, 29, 21, 28, 29, 22, 34, 29, 34, 21, 33, 22, 32, 30, 34, 30, 17, 32, 26, 35, 30, 32, 23, 26, 28, 19, 29, 22, 20, 29, 23, 36, 25, 29, 28, 36, 27, 22, 26, 29, 30, 32, 31, 35, 31, 29, 29, 20, 27, 17, 26, 23, 27, 35, 33, 22, 39, 31, 39, 34, 36, 20, 25, 30, 31, 28, 26, 40, 22, 37, 38, 26, 30, 28, 28, 30, 20, 38, 30, 34, 29, 30, 27, 40, 27, 36, 29, 18, 46, 31, 32, 30, 32, 33, 29, 43, 27, 28, 33, 30, 32, 30, 40, 46, 31, 37, 36, 40, 27, 33, 27, 40, 35, 29, 36, 23, 25, 29, 32, 37, 25, 19, 31, 34, 32, 27, 23, 19, 16, 26, 32, 34, 29, 32, 39, 40, 38, 40, 32, 18, 37, 25, 18, 28, 29, 18, 26, 41, 28, 25, 34, 29, 33, 34, 27, 35, 42, 43, 25, 23, 32, 19, 23, 19, 19, 27, 23, 27, 20, 29, 23, 36, 33, 38, 18, 30, 27, 32, 40, 32, 19, 25, 39, 23, 17, 30, 30, 36, 25, 31, 37, 19, 35, 32, 33, 27, 40, 20, 31, 24, 23, 39, 33, 33, 34, 24, 29, 32, 20, 34, 29, 34, 38, 20, 25, 29, 19, 32, 28, 34, 35, 41, 23, 30, 37, 33, 31, 33, 39, 34, 30, 28, 27, 18, 28, 40, 28, 32, 32, 23, 31, 38, 35, 20, 30, 30, 32, 32, 37, 33, 28, 43, 19, 30, 22, 30, 32, 23, 24, 33, 30, 30, 28, 25, 29, 26, 38, 30, 23, 31, 32, 38, 23, 36, 23, 38, 33, 29, 32, 20, 33, 34, 32, 34, 20, 26, 35, 24, 27, 23, 22, 35, 36, 30, 24, 24, 31, 25, 25, 23, 24, 33, 20, 33, 36, 28, 27, 36, 31, 38, 42, 34, 30, 26, 35, 25, 41, 29, 33, 28, 18, 20, 31, 40, 35, 23, 24, 33, 43, 31, 18, 29, 35, 29, 42, 29, 22, 28, 29, 25, 19, 28, 33, 21, 18, 28, 23, 32, 20, 33, 35, 23, 19, 32, 21, 36, 29, 27, 25, 36, 17, 20, 24, 19, 30, 30, 32, 19, 22, 30, 21, 31, 31, 35, 42, 29, 27, 29, 18, 40, 29, 42, 30, 20, 22, 23, 35, 22, 32, 42, 40, 29, 28, 30, 40, 35, 30, 33, 31, 44, 23, 31, 37, 36, 31, 35, 29, 33, 25, 30, 20, 37, 28, 34, 23, 34, 35, 23, 15, 29, 23, 35, 26, 33, 28, 40, 42, 32, 21, 21, 27, 28, 35, 33, 39, 23, 33, 17, 33, 18, 29, 34

(Up to the 501'st post)

34 for my first. It felt like a really good age. I was settled in my career and marriage and ready for a baby. I've travelled, had lots of great experiences with DH and we've loved pretty much every minute of parenthood so far. I'm not sure when I'll have a second and that may make me wish I'd had my first baby earlier...

29

I got married at 17 (4 weeks before my 18th birthday) had ds1 (unplanned) a year later and ds2 (planned) when I was 21. Dh and I are still married nearly 17 years on and I love my life and wouldn't change a thing!

I was 33 I think

what ARE you dealing?

I was 33 I think

I was young by most standards at 17! . Although where I live has a lot of young parents, there are also a lot of older parents, and the younger ones don't tend to go to the toddler groups. When I did go, the mums that were there ('normal' aged/older) were very cold. Safe to say I didn't last long there.

I think the joy of mn for me is being able to ask and read about things I'd never ask in RL.

Reading things is fine but the fact that this is an anonymous forum doesn't justify anyone asking judgemental questions.

And even as an "older mum" in my area (or younger mum in the one I used to live in!! ) I'd be supportive of any mum/pregnant mum, especially one facing difficulties for any reason. (And regularly promote home start etc etc)

I think the joy of mn for me is being able to ask and read about things I'd never ask in RL. Even just looking at the babyname threads for one - irl people tend to just love whatever you come up with, but on mn you can be more honest.

I've learnt so much from mn. I'm fascinated by the thread and the different ages, mainly out of curiosity I think. It really amazed me how moving from one area to another completely changed people's perception of me as a mother.

I'm really sad to hear people weren't supportive of you in pregnancy (I'm now taking it you were a "young" mum of some description?) In the toddler group I go to it seems there are a lot of early 20s and then a big gap before the ones that are my age!

Journeying but young mothers (an presumably 'old' ones too) are asked these questions in RL. I could count on one hand the amount of genuine, nice things people said to me during pregnancy. Countless rude questions like the ones on this thread though.

In response to the question that MN initially asked, no I would not change it given the chance (but I think that's obvious from my posts.) In fact, I would have had another one while young too, if I could go back.