Warnings about biological clocks have been sounded, of course. Economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett told women in her 2002 book, “Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children,” not to squander their fertility. In 2006, Dr. Miriam Grossman, author of “Unprotected,” told the sad story of “Amanda,” a 39-year-old doctorate student who couldn’t stop crying because of her unfulfilled longing for a baby.
Even if “Amanda” conceives, “the possibility of miscarriage has tripled, the rate of stillbirth has doubled and the risk of genetic abnormality is six times as great,” wrote Dr. Grossman, who also reviewed the high costs of fertility treatments ($15,000 for IVF, $15,000 to $20,000 for egg donation).
Alarm about late-in-life pregnancies is not new, said Janice Shaw Crouse, a scholar at the Beverly LaHaye Institute at Concerned Women for America.
She said a friend years ago became pregnant with her fourth child at 45. “The reaction of everyone was, ‘Well, surely, she’s not going to have a baby at that age.’ But she did,” and that child was a joy to his parents.
For all their ups and downs, midlife moms are a “unique hybrid,” said Mrs. La Liberte. They have “a mother’s heart, entwined with a grandmother’s wisdom. And it doesn’t get any better than that.”
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Cheryl Wetzstein covers family and social issues as a national reporter for The Washington Times. She has been a reporter for three decades, working in New York City and Washington, D.C. Since joining The Washington Times in 1985, she has been a features writer, environmental and consumer affairs reporter, and assistant business editor. Beginning in 1994, Mrs. Wetzstein worked exclusively ...
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