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MNHQ

Average age of first-time mothers is now 30 - how old were you?

540 replies

KateMumsnet · 17/07/2014 10:57

Hello all

Research published yesterday shows that the average British woman is now having her first child at the age of 30 - and we wondered whether this matches MNers' own experiences. So do share your thoughts - are you bang on average, or under, or over? Does it matter - and would you make the same decision again, given the chance?

OP posts:
TheApprentice · 22/07/2014 10:41

I was almost 40. Not ideal to leave it so late but life doesn't always follow our plans!

ksrwr · 22/07/2014 10:49

35

poppy1973 · 22/07/2014 12:18

I was a first time mum at 30

lola1980 · 22/07/2014 12:38

The day before my 33rd birthday! The baby was a fab birthday present. The stitches... not so much.

Bicnod · 22/07/2014 12:51

I was 31 when I had DC1, 33 when DC2 was born and will be 36 when DC3 (definitely my last!) arrives in December.

I remember walking down the street with DH when DC1 was a few months old - we were both incredulous that we hadn't started a family sooner. At that point we wished we had as we felt that nothing that had gone before (lots of amazing travelling, dream job, great social life etc etc) was anywhere near as fantastic as being a parent.

Fast forward a few years (plus many many sleepless nights, tantrums, illnesses, sibling fights etc etc) and I'm VERY glad we waited until we did Grin I love being a Mum, I love my DC beyond measure and wouldn't be without them, but I do miss some parts of my pre-DC life and I'm glad I had that child-free time.

drspouse · 22/07/2014 19:52

44 Grin

DoingTheSwanThing · 22/07/2014 20:10

23 - carefully planned, Ds1 arrived 2 weeks after graduating from med school - generally assumed to have been an accident! Glad we didn't wait too long (sizeable age gap, stable relationship and I'd been broody from about 14).

Downamongtherednecks · 22/07/2014 20:42
JethroTull · 22/07/2014 20:47
  1. Would have liked it to be a little earlier but it didn't work out that way. 4 years of ttc & a round of IVF helped Grin
gallicgirl · 22/07/2014 22:21

36 and my group of uni friends seem to have their first child around their mid 30s.
I wouldn't consider it until I was gone 30 as I wasn't doing a great job of looking after myself, never mind a baby.
However I have found the change in my priorities and identity difficult to deal with. I think if I'd become a mum younger, I might have coped with the transition to motherhood better.

StainlessSteelBegonia · 22/07/2014 23:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ClearlyMoo · 23/07/2014 05:34

35

happyzapper · 23/07/2014 05:38

29

MarchEliza · 23/07/2014 07:33

I will (fingers crossed that everything goes well) be 33 when I give birth, just a month before my 34th birthday.

I am way behind all my school friends in rural Gloucestershire but way ahead my friends of a similar age in London (however many of these are men who have married younger women).

I was not financially or mentally prepared in my 20s, this feels scary but right.

duchesse · 23/07/2014 09:30
  1. He was a very well-timed accident. Sometimes I wish we had travelled even more before having children but we went on all sorts of fantastic holidays with the children when they were very small and have generally missed out on nothing.
Forestmushroom · 23/07/2014 11:25

I was 30, how average of me!

FreeSpirit89 · 23/07/2014 13:16

I was 20, I'm 25 now and hoping for number 2 x

NanooCov · 23/07/2014 13:34

My current age - 37. Baby due in December. Didn't meet the person I wanted to have a baby with until 32 so was already knackered for the "average".

ottilieeberstark · 23/07/2014 15:14

28, first year of neurosurgery residence, I was ready to have my first child.

HerRoyalNotness · 23/07/2014 15:20

I was 34. (then 37 for DS2).

If I had my time again, I would have liked to be a couple of years younger at least, I have it in my head I'd like 3, so would DH, but now I'm 41, it's unlikely to happen. and I would be far too knackered

BonnieCaley · 23/07/2014 16:42

I was 23 when I had my eldest, 25 my middle and 29 my youngest. Always said I would not have any more after turning 30 Smile

SwiftRelease · 23/07/2014 17:05

Am average then!

NK5BM3 · 23/07/2014 19:33

34 and 37. Could have been a little earlier (by a year not more). I was studying till 27, I then did a postdoc that took me to foreign countries. Then got a permanent job and bought my house. Thankfully I did do the postdoc as it enabled me to save up for a deposit. No way if I stayed here with then bf then dh would we have afforded a deposit. Married at 32.

hidingidentity · 23/07/2014 21:41

It's no secret on this website that we had fertility treatment, so obviously we'd have preferred a little earlier. But not much earlier, and when I actually had a baby I felt far to young for the responsibility! Grin
My body is wrecked, but I wouldn't have coped with the lack of "self" when I was younger.

Lucymayk · 24/07/2014 00:38

23 complete shock but wouldn't change a thing x

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