All women who wish to become mothers keep in mind their biological clocks.  Our bodies vary greatly, but we have all been made well aware that we can’t wait forever to have children. In fact, we are often scared to have children over a certain age because of the increased risk to the fetus. I felt I had to have my first child before 30-years-old, especially if I wanted to have two children three years apart, which was the plan.  Even though there is an increased risk of birth defects with older mothers, the mothers themselves may live longer.

New research supports a previous study by the Boston University School of Medicine that found “women who had a baby after turning 40 were four times more likely to live to 100. 

The association between a mother’s age and her length of life is interesting.  Although I suspect psychological benefits of increased desire to live for younger children and grandchildren, researchers have found genetic support.  The magic minimum age for motherhood found in a new study on the subject is 33.

Tech Times reports on the new study:

A study found that women able to give birth after the age 33 often live longer. Researchers say this is not a reason to postpone giving birth and stress that the findings are based on certain women’s natural ability to give birth later in life.

The study looked at biopsychosocial and genetic data collected from 551 families with members living to very old ages. Researchers took the ages of 462 women’s last childbirths and how long each woman lived. Those whose last childbirth occurred after the age of 33 had the twice the probability of living to age 95, or older, when compared with women whose last birth occurred by age 29…

The basic idea behind this research is that if a woman’s reproductive system ages at a rate slower than average, giving her the ability to safely have children at an older age, then it seem likely that the rest of her body is aging at a slower than average rate as well.

My last child was born when I was 32.  I might not live to be 100, but I am blessed!