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…

Lots of people don’t.

For me 35 would have been my cut off however I had my last at 27. Dh said his cut off was 30 which was when we had our youngest.

The majority of people don't in some areas. They know this. Don't respond to their mock shock

For me personally, 24. But that's because I had my 2 kids by 24 and didn't want anymore. Now, in my late 30s and the thought of having kids at my age fills me with dread, but that's only because I've been through it. People having their first kid now won't know any different.

32. That was when DS was born. I couldn't have managed any older. Not so much when he was younger, but his years as teen nearly killed me.

40 would be my personal cut off to try for a baby. But if I fell pregnant accidentally older I would go ahead with a pregnancy.

Like everyone thought this is influenced by how my life has panned out and I’m sure I’d answer differently if I’d been younger when we had our children, or older before I’d met my partner. Or if I’d been trying for a long time and didn’t want to stop. I had my children in my 30s.

I had my only at 39. In hindsight I wish I had him at 35....

I think this is it - you can put it all off and enjoy the holidays/lie ins etc, but the price for that is paid by your offspring in the future. I didn’t want that for my kids. That’s not to say you should pop them out as soon as you meet someone who is willing to impregnate you, ideally it’s a balance. For those reasons my bracket was 25 to 35.

@AllThingsServeTheBeam you can't be genuine. Or your university education wasn't the triumph you think it was.
From a graduate that had 4 babies in my 20s. Goodness!

Sorry @AllThingsServeTheBeam that was meant for @alanabennett

My cut of was 35 BUT I was extremely lucky in that I had 4 DC very quickly between the age of 28-34. If I had had difficulty conceiving who knows

I was 20 when I had my DD, i had never planned for an only child but it's happened last few years . I'm 29 and I feel like I'm over having a young baby /toddler again. The thought of doing school runs for another 10 years!!! My dear friend has had another baby and I thought it might stir broody feelings nope nothing, I feel like that stage of my life is over and I'm at peace with that. I don't have enough energy to give to a second child.

I really admire people who know what they want and go for it. Personally I couldn’t think of anything worse that having a baby at 20-30, I was immature, loved my relatively unburdened life, and would have been a crap mum then as I was too selfish. I also was in a very shit relationship where he was pressuring me for children as he had his fun and I was going into the world of work. Thank god I stayed on the pill. I met my now husband mid 30s. We had a brilliant time in our 30s and did absolutely everything we wanted to do. Had our first at 39/35, now we are 40/36 and looking to start trying for the next one. If it doesn’t happen, we don’t mind as we are so happy. But might as well give it a go!

I'm not sure why you have taken such offense at my comments...I don't think it's such a novel idea that female university graduates typically don't have multiple children in their early twenties - is it?

Of course, I'm sure you're going to regale us with tales of all the young mothers you know who popped out four kids, then married the father before completing their Harvard MBAs and becoming "Mumsnet High Earners".

Ho-hum.

@alanabennett your 'goodness' just made my skin crawl. That is what I and others took offence to.

Im 42 and had the last of my 4 children at 35. Age 40 on the button my back went, knees went, I developed a few stomach issues and I remember looking at people over 40s having babies and wondering how the hell? BUT my issues are from sports, playing madly with the kids (no regrets on that one!!) manual jobs, carrying the kids everywhere, heavy lifting, lack of sleep (I write books!) poor diet etc, basically I didn’t look after my body. There are people out there 10/20 years older than me who have looked after their bodies and are fit, who get good sleep and eat well, or just have better energy than me so I’d never put an age on it!

This is an interesting question. I was pregnant at 34 and had my child at 35.
I was late 20 when I met my husband started trying as soon as we bought a place - that was essential to me as there is poor security in renting here - it then took a a while to conceive. I sailed through pregnancy with no issues and put on hardly any weight. I felt fairly young at the time tbh, where I live it's virtually unheard of to have a baby in your 20s.

However since having my child the sleepless nights and all the bugs they get have been so exhausting. Plus my husband and I both have full on careers that keep us busy and both need time to exercise and unwind. We couldn't face a small gap so put off having a second. Time has suddenly crept up on us and if we were to have another I'd probably be near 40. However we don't think we can face doing it all again and will stick at one child who who we love beyond words and want to provide all we can in terms of our time and money.

So on reflection, in an ideal world I would have started earlier maybe around 31/32. This would have given us more time to decided on a second although we may have still come to the same decision. However things didn't work out that way. I never considered how old I'd be for a second.

If I'd found it harder to get pregnant and was still trying it's hard to say what would be a cut off age, it's such an emotion decision, perhaps 40/41. Lots of older mums in my family and friendship group so it's very normal to me.

For me now, 29, would be too old. When my one and only is 18 I'll be 44. I'm intending on going on a 6 month long hike of the Appalachian trail, followed by yoga teacher training in India once he's off at uni/travelling/work. If I had another child now I'd be so much older and potentially not fit enough for my midlife crisis plans.

Sorry I didn’t mean for this to be a negative post in any way…I just wanted others peoples perspectives on it and views I perhaps haven’t thought about that might help with my own thoughts and to see if people mentioned things I hadn’t considered which may help my decisions. I don’t think there is particularly a right or wrong age to have a baby and it’s very individual that’s why I asked for peoples individual views for them not what they think for others in general, I think most people have only spoke for them too and not made it negative x