Average Age for New Mothers Is Higher

STATES CHRONICLE – Latest statistics show that the average age for new mothers is higher than it has ever been. It seems that American women have their first child around the age of 26. The average age is considerably higher than it was 40 years ago.

T.J. Mathews, a representative of the CDC, declared that the spike in the average age of first-time mothers is due largely to the impressive drop in teen pregnancies. But older women who decide to have their first child contributed too.

There are lots of programs in the present in America that are meant to educate young women about the risks of teen pregnancy and the ways in which a young woman can get pregnant. Thanks to this educational efforts, the rate of young adult women that are with child lowered considerably.

The American government started to track the age of women that are pregnant for the first time in the 1970’s when the average age of conception was 21. Ever since then, the numbers only climbed higher and higher. But sexual education isn’t the only factor, another important cause for this high rates is the busy lifestyle that modern women have.

The idea of a picket white fence and, at least, two children has been replaced with the desire of becoming a team manager, or CEO, or another time consuming leading position. Women have become more business oriented, the fight to equal rights leading them towards a busy life in which children are not a priority until much later on. This is not a bad thing at all, but it contributed to the fact that the average age for new mothers is higher than ever.

Mathews also says that after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 the average age increased by a few units in just a year or so. It seems that the optimization of birth control methods was also a decisive factor in the average age’s increased levels.

Since the 2000’s, it seems that the most impressive rise was recorded among African American women and West Coast mothers. The increase measured a few units in only a couple of years.

The highest values are recorded in the big cities, Colombia has an average of 29, and New York and Connecticut an approximate of 28.

While there is nothing wrong with following your career before thinking about having a child, or waiting for the perfect man to do it with, doctors advise women that are pushing 30 and are thinking about their first child to be extra careful in the process because at this age the pregnancies start to get tricky and complications can appear more often.

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