How old is too old

[Whitegrapeandblackberry]

To have a baby naturally ? I mean get pregnant naturally?

I think the oldest was 57 but I'm not sure

When it comes to age, it's little to do with should you and more a question of biology and CAN you

How do you mean?

Step mum had a baby at 43 no problems. I think in my opinion, think about if you’ll be around to see your child reach adulthood if not then it’s too late

It's not so much age as fertility, how many eggs you have left. A blood test can tell you your FSH levels which will give you an indication of your fertility as it tells if you are/have going/gone through (peri)menopause but I doubt you'd be able to get a GP to do a test at the moment.

I know a bunch of people (myself included) who had their kids on their 40s, the oldest 46. I don't know anyone else who successfully conceived naturally and gave birth to a live baby after 48 (I know people who got pregnant at that age or older but all miscarried).

My great grandmother got pregnant at 49, baby was born when she was 50. She was pregnant at the same time as my grandmother who was expecting my mother, and my mum is two months younger than her uncle.

My great grandmother thought she was in menopause until she realised a baby was kicking. Talk about a shock!

I know a few people irl who have had babies aged 43/44/45
I think it's less a problem of getting pregnant, than staying pregnant beyond that kind of age.

My paternal grandmother had my father at 43 . My grandfather was 58 .

our neighbour had a baby in her 40s... She already has 3... Sadly the little girl has development issues. I understand that as you get older the quality of the egg deteriorates... So the child maybe born unwell.

I am 46 and am very very careful about contraception as I have 6 live births and 13 losses. Out of those 5 were failures of birth control (intra so not my fault). I am sure I would be pregnant within a couple of months if I was not using anything, but I would not be happy to continue the pregnancy for personal and medical reasons as I wouldnt be sure the baby would be ok.

If you can get pregnant naturally you're not too old. If you're over late 40's and need fertility treatment then I think you're too old.

I think men are too old once they are over 50.

I got pregnant at 44, unfortunately I had a miscarriage at 16 weeks. Someone I worked with his wife got pregnant at 49, thought it was menopause, they had both kids at university when their daughter was born, mum sailed through pregnancy & labour, their daughter is 11 now, her mum & dad both chose to take redundancy & early retirement to enjoy her childhood, it has kept them both young, to look at them now you wouldn't think they were in their 60's.

I had a baby at 45+2 months. Conceived naturally (big shock). I had an easy pregnancy, a natural birth & a healthy ds.
However, I was fit and healthy. Bmi was 21. Didn’t drink.
Ds is now 11, and everything is fine. I work hard at staying fit to keep my energy levels up and so I will still be working when he leaves school and still around when he is 30.

Personally for me I wouldn't want to be much older than 40 tbh. I'm 38 and knackered as it is with 2 kids
.

However, I was fit and healthy. Bmi was 21. Didn’t drink.

^
This makes an enormous difference

My mum had my sister at 46. Naturally. Docs gave her TL soon after for fear there would be another one. My sister is now a spunky sassy 31 year old who just had her second

I would draw the line around 40. I have seen so much heartache in friends who tried to get pregnant at an older age - lots of miscarriages, two good friends became pregnant with babies with Down Syndrome and had abortions. It triggered depression in one of them and 2 years on she had still not recovered.

You will get lots of examples with people saying that they know X/Y/Z who had healthy babies in their mid to late 40s.

But these are the pregnancies with a happy ending. As I said above, I have two friends who had medical terminations and I have a few more friends who TTC after 40. They only had miscarriages or didn't get pregnant at all, i.e. none of the bunch had a healthy baby in the end and I think this is far more the norm. But people don't talk about it so much.

For me personally 42 was the last time my body accepted a pregnancy and unfortunately I had to have a TFMR as the baby had Edwards syndrome.

I was 42 with my last pregnancy - perfectly healthy baby. But I know there are more risks later on.

Depends. Some women can't conceive at 30. Or 35. Some go through an early menopause. Some get easily pregnant at 45. There is no rule.

I was 42. Natural conception but DD born premature.

I know women who've had babies up to 45 irl. Most of them had been ttc throughout their 30s and it just didn't happen til later.

My colleagues wife had a surprise pregnancy at 48. They weren’t ttc, they had 3 already.

The baby was perfectly healthy.

I know someone who had a baby at 54 after numerous miscarriages - assisted conception, fairly obviously. Baby is now in his 20s and mother still hale and hearty, having only retired from work last year.