How old were you when you had your last baby.

[summerfinn]

I was 22 having my first and will be 37 having my last. Just wanted to see is 37 a common age for having your last baby. I never dreamt I'd be pregnant at 37 . I always thought that it was a bit old. Now I'm scared that I'm just being selfish and could have a baby with lots of issues.

25

Not intentionally goady at all, just defending older mums who did things differently. Obviously I've touched a nerve with some people but that's their issue to deal with not mine 🤷‍♀️ . I would have loved to have had kids younger (I was broody from the age of 23 ish) but I wasn't in a position to do so and with hindsight waiting was absolutely the right thing to do. I'm not going to apologise for being sensible!

25

My third and last baby was due on my 39th birthday but came a couple of weeks early

I was 41 (did the pregnancy test on my birthday!), had my first at 37. Pregnant first month of trying with all 3DC, no fetal abnormalities.

No nerves touched, you made a rude comment that was offensive to many. Maybe consider some of those other Christian values you have before posting eh?!

Have a lovely Sunday 😀

First 24 and last at 30.
I now have teens/young adult dc while some friends who are same age have got 4/5 year olds. Age is less of an issue than other things.

first 26
second 30

Oh, please. 37 is far from old.

I had an amazingly incident free, healthy twin pregnancy and gave birth when I was 38.5. I actually felt pretty amazing/glowing whilst pregnant and it was one of the happiest times of my life.

I had an emergency section, as Twin 1 decided to go breech. It was a straightforward procedure, although I lost a lot of blood, and the recovery was without incident and I just got on with it (my husband decided to disappear, so it was just me in the early days and, whilst he popped back up, I left him when the girls were 4 or 5 months old).

Nothing wrong with either baby and the girls are now 5.5. They're both Neurodivergent, as am I, but that's nowt to do with my age.

I already had some chronic health conditions, osteoarthritis, degenerative spine and disc disease, Fibromyalgia and Fibroids, BUT I had my 2 beautiful girls in spite of all this, which is a miracle, as was told I wouldn't ever carry babies (multiple MCs).

We have a quite basic, okay quality of life, despite me having physical health issues and, honestly, I've needed a lot of energy solo parenting hyper ND twins with zero support.

So, yeah, maybe being older does carry some risks and maybe is a worry when you had child(ren) younger, bit I can only speak from my own meandering experience.

Good luck x

27 my first
32 my second
35 my third

47 my fourth and last 😀

22 with 1st
almost 25 with 2nd (last)

32

43

Raised happily all round, I won’t have the pleasure of being a young granny, but I think having children and teens kept me active and engaged in new things as I approached middle age.

37, first at 35. Glad I have the gap I do and glad I established my career etc before kids.

Had my first at 23.

Had my second (and last) at 29.

I felt a massive difference in my energy levels and found it much harder at 29. Both babies were sleeping through by 3 months but just found it way longer to recover when I was that little bit older.

17 1st
18 2nd
20 3rd
29 4th
32 5th

Currently 38 with a grand baby due in October

The woman in question was thirty frigging two and old enough to know better! That is not a young mum being supported by benefits because they're young and vulnerable, that was a grown woman actively working out that she could get more in benefits than working, (and I was in on those conversations btw as my field of work then meant I was useful to her 🙄) and choosing to continue with a pregnancy against the biological father's wishes (a man she'd never met until the night the child was conceived) just so she could have a different lifestyle.

And yes, I bloody judged, she was ridiculous, and the thing is that baby was born with major special needs that weren't picked up until he was 6 or 7, has never met his biological father and will probably never live independently so having a dad around would have helped enormously! Common sense tells you that's not the best outcome for the now 18 year old young man she's struggling with, surely?

I have had my first at 27 (would have been 26 but lost that pregnancy unfortunately) and plan to have my second at around 31/32. However, life changes and things happen like infertility etc. Some people may not want children until later and being honest I do not think 37 is old. A lot of people I know had their first at 35-40 years old. They may have wanted to have more time before having kids, didn’t find the one until later on or had fertility issues.

A lot of people become judgemental about when is best to have kids going off of their own experiences. Some shame older mums and say having kids in their 20’s is the best age and that 30+ is too old and some shame younger mums saying they didn’t live their life first.

Yes I will agree statistically you are more likely to have a pregnancy loss or disabilities being closer to 40 than you are 20 but that doesn’t mean it’s across the board. I’ve have 2 miscarriages in my mid 20’s and my friend lost her baby due to severe disability at 23 and I know woman who had pregnancies at 38 who got pregnant and had a healthy babies no losses.

Just do what makes you happy and stop comparing x

I wasn't rude. I also wish you a fabulous day 😀

46. We'd like another but head has overruled heart and we can't take the risk.

I was 23 when we had DS. We had both just graduated uni, had an offer accepted on a house and starting careers in the NHS. We had been together 5 years. Yes he was a surprise but he wasn't unwanted and defiantly didn't suffer with us being young. Since having him I've done two significant post graduate qualifications and DH has done one, we have moved up the career scale. If we are talking pure financial our starting salary back then was more than a lot of people earned in their 30s and 40s, he's been on multiple holidays, lives in a house with its own games room and never wants for anything.

Most importantly he was born at a time that means he's had his grandparents be relatively young as he's grown up which has given him countless experiences he wouldn't have got if we had him at 40. He's also had experience that will set him up in life such as watching us renovate house or study for exams around having fun. One of my favourite memories is he was page boy at our wedding and that of his god parents which was a lovely experience.

Ten years later we're 33 and loving life, wouldn't change having him young.

To answer the OP question I don't think any age is too old to be having your last as it just means the child gets a different life experience. You may be more stable in your career and life but you also have other challenges like your own aging parents. If we could have another one I don't think I would put an age limit on when we had them.

Things were different for the older generations!

I had been married 2 years by the time I had my first baby, at age 22. My husband and I bought our first home a few months before we married and I moved in with him after our honeymoon. We were 19 and 22 when we bought our house and got our first mortgage.

My husband had graduated from university the summer before we got married and had a good job, with prospects. I didn't go to university (the vast majority of people didn't in those days) so started work after I left school.

By the time I was 37, my children were teenagers and I would in no way have wanted another baby at that age. I am full of admiration for women who have their babies towards the closing of their biological windows, in their late 30s and early 40s. I know I couldn't have done it! I wouldn't have had the energy or the patience to deal with babies, nappies, sleepless nights, screaming toddlers etc at that age. By 37 I was starting to look forward to the prospect of an empty nest and a little more freedom.

@TheSnootiestFox bloody hell, you sound realty judgemental. 🤯

My sister gave birth to her first at 21, having dropped out of uni at 20, and she was unmarried (shocked, horror!). She's gone on to have 2 more DC (in her late 20s and early 30s), having built a pretty amazing career, gaining qualifications along the way, working her way up the property ladder etc.

I, whereas, did uni and did amazingly as expected, entering the corporate world, attaining what some may view as an enviable lifestyle early on. Then, crashed and burned, becoming what someone like you what likely view as a burden upon the taxpayer.

I didn't meet my now ex-husband until I was 34/35. Had my twins at 37/38. Ex pretty much stole my savings. Now, DC and I are are pretty much at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale and don't have an enviable lifestyle, but we do okay and none of us goes without (by my limited standards).

Both my DCs and my sister's DCs are pretty awesome and I'm rather proud of us all.

I hope you don't fall from your ivory tower. 😄

If the man didn’t want a baby he should have made better choices about what he did with his penis. Sure he knew that having sex with a woman of fertile age could result in pregnancy for goodness sake.

But thank you for the further explanation about the woman you know. So she’s not actually thrifting off the system is she. She’s a carer for her child with disabilities, which I can assure you is a full time commitment in itself. That’s why non-professional carers get carers allowance, which is considered an income and pays towards NI credits. For someone so well read, you seem incredibly ignorant about many things.

I’d be rather embarrassed to keep posting if I were you, I’d really rather just be thought of as a Grade A typical middle aged, middle class, holier-than-thou, ‘never did anything I wasn’t told to’ bore than the route you’re now going down…

Agree with this!