To be surprised at someone being pregnant at 44

[Onempretime7788]

I would have thought post 35 was rare

Clearly then you are extremely hard of thinking and/or don't engage in real life.

What are you expecting from this thread?

I had my first at 36 and second at 40

Just had my first at 42. My DH was looking forward to the months of vigorously trying only for me to get our bun in the oven on the first try.

To bring some clarity to this, the NHS maternity statistics show that there were 129,608 live births to women aged 35 and over in the year between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. This is out of the 500k or so births in total…so, a very significant proportion.

Source: https://files.digital.nhs.uk/A2/93F997/hosp-epis-stat-mat-hesnational-2024-25.xlsx

So the only thing surprising is your surprise, OP.

Why does it matter so much to you !!

Yes at 44 I would be a bit surprised but not blown away by it. The oldest women I’ve met who’ve had babies either naturally or with ivf were 42.

Under 40 I wouldn’t really think twice about someone being pregnant. It’s so common. But yes the risks are higher for older parents and fertility is more likely to be an issue. Society has changed but our biology hasn’t.

If I was with the right person at 35 I wouldn’t wait to ttc as you never know how easy (or possible) it will be until you try.

Not shocking at all. Are you one of those people who think every woman goes through menopause in their 40s and puts everything down to it.

Erm I had a single at 43 twins at 44 and thought I was finished at 34 with all the olders but got broody haha no problems and 3 of my friends two are 44 and expecting firsts and one is 45 and just had beautiful twin boys with no problems

I had my first just after turning 46. No fertility treatment. Pregnancy and labour were fine. I must be a unicorn going by this thread.

I feel like there is a weird moral panic about "older mums".

Women have always had kids in their 40s. If you go on Wikipedia and look at any woman in the past with a large amount of children then the last one is born in her 40s. Eleanor of Aquitaine had one at 42.

I think people are taking offence where I'm not sure any was intended. If I hadn't been on Mumsnet for so long, I'd have thought the same. It's all area dependent.

I see people saying "anything below 30 is young" - where I live it's more like below 20; I had DD at 19 and had raised eyebrows but that's more because I carried on with uni at the same time. Most of the FTMs I know are 25-ish; I don't know of anyone having their first after around 32.

Obviously in somewhere like London that would be different! But if you don't leave your hometown much / don't have much communication with people in different areas, you wouldn't really know that.

Someone's been at the 🍷

The ONS publishes live birth data by parental characteristics.
the most recent full data set published is 2022, in which there were just over 600,000 maternities. Of these, the modal age for having a baby was 30-34 (just over 200,000 live births), just over 121,000 babies were born to mothers 35-39 and just under 29,000 women aged 40-44 had babies. So not really rare, just less common. Around 2500 people over 45 had babies that year.

as with many things, it’s a statistical distribution around the average (in this case 30-34).

Not surprising in the slightest, and clearly a wind up thread.

I had my first at 35 and my fourth at 42! These days women usually build a career or try to have some financial security prior to starting a family, also they have to find a suitable male parent for their kids!
I’d say it’s not at all unusual these days. As long as mum and baby are both healthy, what exactly is your issue? Be happy for them!

It is a joke thread because they haven’t provided any context for their question. What their age is or where/how they live.

@Onempretime7788 I’m afraid this type of question suggests you’re either quite old and not kept up with how the world around you has changed since back in your day - most women needing to work, lots of households unable to manage on one income, expensive childcare, family further away to support, more/better career opportunities for women amongst many other reasons.
Or you live a very very sheltered life where you aren’t aware or see any of how all of the above influences a large majority in the wider population to have to push having children to later.
Is it one of those, or can you provide more context as to why this is a surprise to you and made you ask the question?

It is very area and culture dependent. In my area, which is working class and in the middle of England, 42 would be pretty remarkable. It would usually be someone having a third baby with a new partner or something. Most people have one or two kids when they're between 25 and 32ish.

My group of friends is turning 40 over the next couple of years and we mostly have one or two kids in upper primary. We'd be horrified to get pregnant now.

Are you talking about Paloma Faith?

In real life yeah in mumsnet world no

I feel no need to comment on ops post , and although no common . Women can enter an early natural menopause , I was 36 when it happened .

Ignorant

Not so long 29 was called a geriatric pregnancy.

Current data indicates that the number of parents giving birth who are aged 40 and over has surpassed the number of teenagers giving birth. I had my second at 45 with no issues, as did an aunt of mine decades ago. It's not "only on MN" since there are vast continents full of people out there who are not active on MN, who are happily having children in their 40s. In Spain for instance, the numbers are increasing significantly. I think there was a time when having children in your 40s was not considered safe due to many factors. But with modern medicine and care, ovulation predictors, and early detection of dangerous pregnancies have all made a significant difference.However, even in the pre-contraceptive era about 10% of all pregnancies were in women over 40.

I had poor ovarian reserve at 30. I was told by the consultant that I’d struggle to conceive without ivf. My two were not conceived by ivf in the end. DS1 at 33 and DS2 at 40. My friend had hers at almost 41 and 44. I understand that it is not rare for the ovaries to make a sort of last minute effort to release eggs in the years before menopause.

I wouldn’t expect to conceive easily after 35 but plenty of us do manage it. Although pp are reporting their own/close circle’s experiences, I was told by a senior nurse at Liverpool Womens that she was seeing plenty of women conceiving and carrying to term at 40 plus after previous mcs.

Ridiculous post.