The number of women choosing to have babies in their 40s has trebled in the last 20 years. In the last decade alone, the figure has doubled.
Over 26,000 women over 40 gave birth last year, compared to 13,000 in 1997. Of those 26,000 babies, more than 1,000 had a mum over the age of 45.
Women are 50% more likely to be able to conceive between the ages of 35 and 40 than they were 10 years ago. Anastasia de Waal, head of family and education at the leading think-tank Civitas, has also linked the rise in older mums to financial issues and the recession.
“I would say it’s likely that the recession has had some impact on people’s fertility choices. There is so much out there about how expensive it is to have a child. When there is job insecurity, people are much less likely to think that now is a good time to take maternity leave,” she explained.
“There is less opportunity for women in their 20s and 30s to have families because of the pressure on households for couples both to work,” said Jill Kirby of the centre right think tank Centre for Policy Studies.
“In many cases this means they have postponed having children,” Jill added.
It seems that despite Labour’s incentives like subsidised childcare, women still struggle to leave the work place to have children before their late 30s and 40s.
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