Baby planning time - Busy women leave it too late for babies

Women who put off having families until their late thirties may be leaving it too late. The risk of infertility increases significantly from the age of 35, a scientist has claimed.

About 30 per cent of healthy women who delay starting a family until they are 35 could take more than a year to conceive. After two years of trying, 15 per cent would still not be pregnant.

By the time they reached 38, more than half would take at least a year to conceive and 35 per cent would be unable to get pregnant at all without medical intervention, according to Dr. Egbert te Velde from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Family Planning Association information director Toni Belfield backed Dr. te Velde's call for better information for women postponing pregnancy but was more optimistic about their chances.
She said: 'Women need to know that if you choose to delay having babies it will take longer to conceive. If you or your partner does have fertility problems you will have less time to sort them out.
'It normally takes an average of six months for any couple to conceive and it can be up to a year.'

The average age at which a woman in the UK has her first child has risen from 26 to 29 in the past ten years. More women now have their children between the ages of 30 and 34 than 25 to 29. Actress Emma Thompson and popstar Madonna are among those who waited until their late thirties and early forties to have children.

Source: Metro, Tuesday, July 3, 2001