Women defy nature and risk heartbreak by delaying pregnancy

WOMEN who delay having children are defying nature and risking heartbreak, experts warned yesterday.

In their desperation to “have it all”, women are at risk of ignoring biology which means childbearing in their 30s and 40s is much more difficult, according to doctors writing in the British Medical Journal.

They said society, employers and health planners were to blame for encouraging women to delay motherhood to focus on their careers and achieve financial stability.

The strongly-worded editorial was written by Susan Bewley from St Thomas’ Hospital and Melanie Davies from University College hospital, both consultant obstetricians in London, and head of the department of women’s health at St Thomas’ Hospital Peter Braude.

They said pregnancies in women over 35 were increasing markedly in Western countries.

They also said that age-related fertility problems increased after the age of 35, and dramatically so after 40.

The experts listed a number of complications linked to later motherhood, including pre-eclampsia and increased risk of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies.

They also said older fathers had decreased fertility, while children of older men had an increased risk of schizophrenia and several genetic disorders.

Yet the availability of IVF treatment may lull women into infertility while they wait to find a suitable partner and “concentrate on their careers”, the experts warned.

They also said IVF failure rates were high and the treatment expensive.

They added: “For individual women, a short delay poses little absolute risk. Most pregnancies in women older than 35 have good outcomes, but small shifts in population distribution curves affect large numbers of women.”