A little advice from an older mother
November 22, 1999 - Any baby is wonderful, and I speak as one who had her fourth baby when she was 47 years old.
(Not that I'm trying to compete here in the elderly mother stakes, at which I plainly win, just establishing my credentials to speak on the subject).
Having a baby late is no problem.
Apart from anything else the system gets flooded with natural oestrogen, which stands you in good stead for at least another 10 years.
If nature says you can, and gets you pregnant, then you can.
The empty cradle
longing gets finally laid to rest: that strange restless feeling that you're only whole if you have a baby in your arms.
It's nothing to do with having more children
that's rational, this is instinctive and truly powerful.
You may have more trouble than you expect from other women, who somehow feel that it isn't right, that there are only so many babies to go round, and you have nabbed another one out of turn.
They can get envious and peculiar.
On first suspecting this untoward event I went to a doctor and said other women tell me I shouldn't go through with this, my eggs are too old,
as if I were some aging hen, to which he briskly replied.
My mother was 47 when I was born, and there isn't anything wrong with me,
which put an end to that discussion.
This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on Independent.co.uk
Read more: A little advice from another older mother
Originally posted on November 22, 1999.
TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Fathers of a Certain Age: The Joys and Problems of Middle-Aged Fatherhoodby Martin Carnoy
-- A father and son interview dozens of men in their 40s and 50s to discover why these men have decided to delay parenting or start over, and how they feel about fathering children in late middle age.
The result is a timely assessment of the challenges and rewards older fathers face, as seen through their own eyes and those of their wives and children.
Men are becoming fathers at 40, 50 or more, but there is very little information on what issues they will have to deal with or how to cope with the new life phase.
Lots of anecdotes of from families with either delayed or remarried fatherhood.
It offers glimpses of societal changes as we are all living longer and healthier and as a result, may have children later.
Discusses step-kids, May-December marriages, adoption, fathers-at-home, and more.
Paperback: 192 pagesClick to order/for more info: Fathers of a Certain Age
Category: 47
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