The benefits associated with being born in a later year outweigh the biological risks associated with being born to an older mother. Children of older mothers are healthier, taller and obtain more education than the children of younger mothers. The reason is that in industrialized countries educational opportunities are increasing, and people are getting healthier by the year. In other words, it pays off to be born later.
Most previous research suggests that pregnancy in older women leads to greater health risks to their children. Childbearing at older ages is understood to increase the risk of negative pregnancy outcomes such as Down Syndrome, as well as increase the risk that the children will develop Alzheimer’s disease, hypertension, and diabetes later in life.
However, despite the risks associated with delaying childbearing, children may also benefit from mothers delaying childbearing to older ages. These are the findings from a new study conducted by Mikko Myrskylä, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), and his colleague Kieron Barclay at the London School of Economics, that has been published today in Population and Development Review.
Both public health and social conditions have been improving over time in many countries. Previous research on the relationship between maternal age and child outcomes has ignored the importance of these macro-level environmental changes over time. From the perspective of any individual parent, delaying childbearing means having a child with a later birth year. For example, a ten-year difference in maternal age is accompanied by a decade of changes to social and environmental conditions.
Taking this perspective, this new MPIDR-study shows that when women delay childbearing to older ages their children are healthier, taller, and more highly educated. It shows that despite the risks associated with childbearing at older ages, which are attributable to aging of the reproductive system, these risks are either counterbalanced, or outweighed, by the positive changes to the environment in the period during which the mother delayed her childbearing.
For example, a woman born in 1950 who had a child at the age of 20 would have given birth in 1970. If that same woman had a child at 40, she would have given birth in 1990. “Those twenty years make a huge difference,” explains Mikko Myrskylä. A child born in 1990, for example, had a much higher probability of going to a college or university than somebody born 20 years earlier.
“The benefits associated with being born in a later year outweigh the individual risk factors arising from being born to an older mother. We need to develop a different perspective on advanced maternal age. Expectant parents are typically well aware of the risks associated with late pregnancy, but they are less aware of the positive effects” said Myrskylä.
