To not know if I can get pregnant at 49?

[Holyguacamollie]

I stopped using contraception a few months ago because quite frankly I'm sick of it and when I googled getting pregnant at 49.6 it said it was 0-1% chance.

It felt like v good odds.

However. I now 'feel' pregnant and I'm a bit panicked. Period due in a few days.

Surely I couldn't be could I?

Well, when I was working as a midwife I encountered a woman who was 43, who became pregnant naturally with triplets.

She already had three adult children and she was horrified but the babies were all okay (which is not a given with triplets anyway).

Seriously, can you imagine having three babies to look after when you're 43?

When you were working as a midwife how many 43+ natural pregnancies carried to term did you see ?

The oldest I know was 47 but (if it makes a difference) it was her 9th baby pretty much on the trot, having had one roughly every 18 months for 13/14 years.

She's 49 now, no plans for a 10th even if it were possible 😉.

I couldn't tell you exactly but it would be fewer than ten, I think. In a career which spanned about twenty years, and not always in the labour ward. There would have been other women with whom I did not come into contact. My personal caseload as a community midwife had four (in five years).

I was just remembering another woman who was 42 who conceived twins (naturally) and they were born prematurely, but they survived.

Maybe they are all too busy with their children to pop onto a forum?

50 year olds aren't the only people with families and yet there's a diverse range of ages. Where are all the ones ho have older children?

That reminds me of a woman who I met when I was a student midwife way back in 1835.............

Anyway, she had fifteen children when I first met her and I believe ended up with eighteen. I do not recall her age but she would have been about 42 when I met her, probably, so about 46 when she stopped having babies.

I did deliver a woman of her tenth baby, and several of their eighth/ninth. I worked with a large Bengali community and they tended not to use contraception.

Im just here to wait for op’s result 😛

Me too!

My midwife has a 54 year old lady under her care

Gosh, that's really unusual.

Oldest I know was my nan who got pregnant at 49 and had my mum when she was 50.

Should she be sharing that information?

My great grandmother was a midwife in the 1930s - 1960s, so before reliable contraception or IVF. Whilst it was fairly common for women in their early 40s to be pregnant (but they were usually the last in a long line of babies and had siblings 20+ years older), it was almost unheard of for women over 45 to be pregnant. She saw a handful a year and never saw a pregnant 50 year old. Those in their late 40s that claimed to be pregnant, most of the time it turned out their new baby was actually their grandchild.

My grandma had 7 children (she had her youngest at 36 but that was probably because my grandfather tragically died shortly after her giving birth. Otherwise i would not be surprised if they carried on to having more).
And she told me that at her time, it was fairly common to see women having children into their late 40s. Mind you that my origin country was VERY underdeveloped at that time (like average life expectancy for man was around 55). The oldest woman I know who has had a natural pregnancy (carried to term and healthy delivered ) is 46-47ish. She was my old neighbor. And I have a new neighbour gave birth at 43 for her 1st child but went straight into menopause after that.

So it is a very odd thing and surely unexpected things can happen.

It's possible - must be very small numbers - but it so rare an event and thus note worthy everyone talks about it so seems way more common than it is.

DH GM died many years before I met DH - yet I've heard the story from family as an interesting fact and sort of warning cautionary tale to menopausal women within and outside the family.

@lalalalalala123 that's close to record breaking if it was a natural conception.

i wouldn’t risk it personally as many women in my family have had babies in their 40s very easily. My mum had her final period at 60.

I bet she had some amazing stories, @Dinkleberg . What a fantastic career, helping all those women.
I have to say that this thread has made me go down an internet rabbit hole a bit. Over 50s live births are not only still rare in the UK, they're usually assisted conception.

Personally i think there lies a big difference between 49 and “50 plus “.
And the reason that the majority of reported case being assisted-conception could well be that IVF clinics are keen to report those figures whist healthy natural pregnancies just went off the book.

All listed on Wikipedia, some are natural.
All the women are named.

Of course you can say I have a patient age x with no further details.

The same thing happened to me last month! (Am almost 51, have stopped taking the pill as you’re not allowed it over 50, even if you are still regular and not overweight/health risk….)

so, my period was one week late. My boobs really hurt all week, even had to sleep with a bra, and emotionally I felt euphoric even though the idea of being pregnant scared me. Just when I decided to buy a pregnancy test I started bleeding, and bled for 2 weeks. It could have been a late and bad period or a miscarriage, I will never know

made an appointment to get coil fitted!

either way, most pregnancies at this age end in an early miscarriage, and also, at our age, it could just be a hormonal blip

so keep cool, and once you know for sure you are not pregnant get birth control sorted! You can get Mirena or other coil, the progesteron only pill (not as good as the normal pill) and condoms

good luck

hope it’s nothing and no worries for you

Good luck OP, I'm 40 and thinking of coming off the pill, but maybe not 😬

I was 44 when my 4th was born. 17 years younger than my 3rd. Naturally and accidentally conceived.

My 18.5 year old DD had just gone off to Uni.

2or 3 of the villages gossips tried to tell people that youngest DD was really hers!
She is definitely mine- I have the c-section scar to prove it.

Definitely don’t at 40 @RuralRabbit . I’m 42 and have had a MMC and a pre natal Trisomy 21 diagnosis in the past year. I am getting the implant now. We were TTC but never again - the heartbreak is awful.