What age do YOU personally think is too old for YOU to have a/more babies and why?

[Jaaxe]

Just curious as to what age you’d stop having babies and why? How old would be too old for you and why? I’ve just had a baby and I thought I’d be done after this one but now im not so sure, it all seems pretty final to say im done but maybe I am….maybe it’s the hormones, I certainly don’t want another anytime soon or maybe even at all but then I wonder if I did decide im not done how old is too old :/ perhaps im just feeling like this as this one was meant to be my last one…

I've finished having kids now but if I wasn't... Probably 40 for a second child. Maybe 45 for a first (and only!) child if I felt like I was in good health. For anyone else... Each to their own.

37 for me as OH will be 40. I want to enjoy my 50s/60s with some independence and also, all being well, live long enough that they are fully grown and able to deal with the death of a parent.

I'm 43 and ttc, haven't told a soul (except DH of course!) I have a grown up son who now lives abroad and have yearned for a second child for years and years and years. These next few months of trying (if it's not happened this last cycle) and then I'm done trying. For clarification exH only ever wanted one and I have been trying with new DH 2 years almost. I really do love these posts they're so interesting, also appreciate massively the pp who have put a lot younger age but then add - but circumstances are different for all, people are different etc. In a perfect world we would all have our children exactly when we want them but life doesn't quite work like that unfortunately.

34 would be my cut-off but had all of them between 26 and 32.

I just miscarried after finding out I was pregnant 24hours before. I'm almost 47, I'm glad nature took its course. We were very shocked and surprised, it's way to late for me.

Personally I, myself wouldn't have any past 35.
I wanted to have my kids before I hit 30 and I did so I'm happy.

Why are people always telling women what they ‘should’ do?!

Nature reckons 50ish is about the right age to stop 🤷‍♀️

For me 35. My mum had me at 42, I'm early 40's now and dm is 83, I wish she'd had me earlier if she could have, but my parents didn't meet til late 30's.

I admit I do find it hard with her being elderly and frail now, in physical terms she needs more and more help and mentally she's now declining unfortunately. My Dad is a few years younger than her and has cancer so not well either, it's been a tough few years but obviously these things can happen to anyone at any time.

From a selfish point of view it would have been nice to have some help with looking after dc occasionally, even just for an hour for me to go to an appointment. Dm has never felt physically well enough to help with childcare, I had dd when I was 30 so dm was 71 then, and didn't feel she could cope with babysitting. Df is very old fashioned and doesn't do childcare! I suppose ideally if dm had had me 10 years earlier it would've made a difference to me now at this stage of life, and to dd, she could have been more involved. But then again ill health can happen at any time, so it may well not have made any difference, who knows!

I remember being warned by my gp after bloods that in terms of ability to conceive I was still very fertile, and not to assume pregnancy was unlikely. I'd gotten pregnant easily at 37 and 40 with no "trying". I was 45/46 at the time and my gut punch reaction was oh god NO. Big contract from an accident at 43 and even 44, would have been a happy accident.

Im 48 now with a 7 and 9yo. No bother to me. Can't see some any difference between me and the mums a few years younger.

40 would have been my cut off, but my health meant I stopped younger than that.
I had all of my children in my 30s, but I find myself now thinking of the future and how old I will be (if I’m still alive) when they are adults and their adult milestones. It makes me wish sometimes I had them in my 20s and made my cut off 30.

42 was my absolute cut off, that said I would probably have given my remaining frozen embryos a chance. I had my second at 41.

I feel 42 was my limit with the logic you'll be 60 when they are 18 and you'll want to support them through uni / early career and still retire at some point.

I'd also worry about being much older and having illness fitness issues whilst they are still quite young.

35

If I’d had our first even two or three years earlier I would have definitely gone all out to try for a second, but as I was 40 by the time she came along (and that was my cut off to stop ttc/ going down the fertility treatment route anyway) we haven’t done that. We haven’t actively tried to prevent it either, but for various reasons apart from age it would be very unlikely. Im 43 now and if we did by some fluke conceive again I’d go ahead - I don’t really recognise the idea you always get on these threads that you’re suddenly knackered and past it in your 40s, I’m about as tired as anyone with a sleep refusing toddler would be but no more so - but the worry of increased risks and how that might impact existing DD is what puts me off.

Stopped planning for one at 40.

Husband had a vasectomy.

If I fell pregnant tomorrow I'd just get on with it.

But not everyone wants babies in their 50s. It was a thread for opinions. I've not seen a single post telling anyone what they 'should' be doing.

I wanted to be done by my mid-30s, and I had my second and last at 34. I appreciate that I was lucky to have met DH in our early 20s, so that we had 10 years together before contemplating parenthood, and that conceiving and pregnancy were pretty straight forward for me.

I know lots of women who have had babies in their mid-40s and totally respect their choices. I just wouldn’t have wanted that for myself.

I'd not want to from my 40s because I'd like to spend my 50s doing what I enjoy with DH and not worrying about school runs and teen issues.

Same here.

I'd have said older when I was younger, but now I think mid 30s at the latest.

I'm now in my 50s and my friends keep bloody dying. I've lost 4 men (including DH) and a woman in the last 3 years, all in their mid 50s. So much harder for everyone when the DC are still children.

50s seem to be a very risky decade. Apparently, although average life expectancy is 82/83, if you survive your 50s it's much higher.

Also working FT in your late 50s/60s gets hard best not to be still putting DC through University if it can be avoided.

37 was my cut off. But I started young.

Ideally I want to be done by 30, but I'll probably be 31/32 when we have our third (hopefully!).

I'm 26 with 2 under 2 and if childcare wasn't so damn expensive I'd have 3 under 3.

I was 32 when I had my second and that was my cut off.
Had a surprise baby at 41 ( didn't know I was pregnant until 26 weeks) and it was no harder but I wouldn't have chosen to have one that age.

35 was my cut off. I managed to sneak my DD just before I turned 35. It was unexpected but I'm not doing it again.

I would say 35. I had my youngest when I was 30 (32 now). I genuinely thought I was going to drop dead for the first 18 months.

I'm just not sure I could put my body through that again.

For Me, I also think that if my children have babies then I'd possibly be in my late 50's or 60 something and could (hopefully) be somewhat sprightly and help out.