Many women strive to have their children at a young age but circumstances such as infertility, delay in finding the right partner and many other factors have led to a delay in childbearing for many women. However, experts advise against waiting till 40 before a woman starts having children as this poses a lot of risk.
Asides several complications during pregnancy, such as high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and many others, there are complications after birth too, several articles have revealed.
In an article published by Allison Giles in the Virginia Physicians for Women, it was stated that the U.S. National Birth Defects Prevention Study found that women greater than age 40 are at increased risk of having babies with multiple types of heart defects, genital abnormalities, skull deformities, and oesophageal malformations.
Kristeen Cherney wrote that any pregnancy after age 40 is high risk. Asides high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, the woman is prone to having an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, birthing a low-birth weight child and having a child with birth defects.
According to a Nigerian fertility expert, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, women who start having children after age 40 are prone to give birth to chromosomally abnormal babies with down syndrome and other conditions.
Ajayi in a chat with our reporter insisted age has an effect on fertility, hence women should start raising their family on time. In his explanation, while a woman aged 30 has 1 in 385 chances of having a chromosomally abnormal baby, a woman who is aged 40 has 1 in 66 chances.
According to him, “Women should try to conceive at an early age because chromosomal abnormal babies are mostly associated with women over 40. So, everything could go wrong with women who wait till after 40 years to have children.”
Correcting the impression that invitro fertilization (IVF) can be done regardless of age, the expert stated, “IVF may not save you once you are 40 years and above, because the same law that applies to natural conceiving is the same law that applies to IVF. While a woman who is about 30 years, has about 20 to 25 per cent chance of conception, it is about 5 per cent in women who are over 40 years.”
Citing studies conducted, Ajayi emphasized, “According to several studies, 50 per cent of women will not succeed to conceive naturally and if she tries to do IVF, there are two things that she will have to contend with, it is either she is using her own eggs, which has five to 10 per cent or use donor eggs.
The obstetrics and gynecology expert advice women to consider storing their eggs in their early 30s.
“By the time you get to 33 years and not married, I will advise you start thinking of storing your eggs, by freezing them in an IVF clinic, because by the time you get to 35 years, the quality of your eggs will drop. It is a better assurance when you store your eggs than when you don’t
“It is quite possible to conceive naturally, use your own eggs with IVF, but the chance of chromosol abnormality is higher. Also about 50 per cent of them will lose their pregnancy, because they are considered to be a high risk pregnancy due to pre-eclampsia, placenta accident, CS is much more increase in women over 40,” he further stated.
“While women want to be financially and morally stable before raising their children, you need to be pregnant first before raising those children. At age 40, having made all the money, who will you spend it on, if you can’t have children? We need to have it at the back of our minds that before you can do that, you need to have the children first,” he noted.
Daily Trust
