743 Women Give Birth at Age Over 50

According to the CDC, 743 women over 50 gave birth in 2014, which is either a testament to the health of some older women, or a signal of the effectiveness of modern medicine. Consider, that when these children are 20, their mothers will be well over 70. They will not have grandparents, and in some cases the parents who raised them will be gone

The National Vital Statistics division of the CDC recently released is Births: Final Data for 2014 report. In it, the authors wrote:

There  were  743  births  to  women aged  50  and  over  in  2014,  up  from  677  in  2013. The  number  of  births  to  women  in  this  age  group  has  generally increased  since  1997  (144),  when  data  for  women  aged  50  and  over became  available  again.  The birth rate for women age 50–54 was 0.6  births  per  10,000  women  in  2014,  unchanged  from  2013 . Because  of  the  small  number  of  births  to  women  in  this  age group,  the  birth  rate  for  women  aged  50–54  is  expressed  per  10,000 women.  For  rates  shown  elsewhere  in  this  report,  births  to  women  aged 50  and  over  are  included  with  births  to  women  aged  45–49  when computing  birth  rates  by  age  of  mother  (the  denominator  for  the  rate is  women  aged  45–49).

The mean age for first births was 26.3 in 2014, up from 26 in 2013.

At least one scientist is anxious about the trend. The AARP reported:

Skeptics wonder about the life span of the new 50-ish mother, and they also fear parents might not “possess the requisite stamina,” said Bonnie Steinbock, a bioethicist and professor emeritus at the University at Albany in New York. “They wonder how she will handle a recalcitrant toddler in the terrible twos,” Steinbock said. “Will she be able to relate? Will the child feel embarrassed because the parents look like everyone else’s grandparents?” Others believe it is “unnatural” to use IVF technology in older women, that science is usurping the natural order.

Are the women or science to blame?

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Science may carry the age of women who give birth as high as 60, or more.

According to CBS:

A woman in India could make the record books as one of the oldest ever to give birth.

Daljinder Kaur, who’s believed to be at least 70 years old, gave birth to a son named Arman (meaning “wish” in Hindi) on April 19. The baby was the first for Kaur and her 79-year-old husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, after nearly five decades of marriage.

“I feel blessed to be able to hold my own baby. I had lost hope of becoming a mother ever,” said Kaur, who underwent two years of IVF treatment and had two failed attempts earlier.

When her child reaches 20, the mother will probably be dead, leaving open the question of who will raise the children.

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