Jan/090
Becoming a mother at 40′s
Italy is the western country that has the largest number of mothers over forty. 4.6% of children born in 2005, in fact, born to mothers over forty. The phenomenon is widespread in all western countries but in Italy takes on larger proportions, for reasons both economic and social. Italian women are harder to reach a working position, and therefore economic, stable and have much more difficulty in other European women to reconcile work and family. Certainly there are many women who arrive late for motherhood because they had difficulty conceiving but to be increasing the number of those who chose to delay motherhood to a stage of life they deemed most appropriate.
Although the forties today are mostly in good shape, unlike the majority of women the same age twenty-five to thirty years ago, over forty pregnancies involve greater risks than those conducted in any case at a young age, most often because are characterized by obstetric complications such as’ hypertension arterial gestosis, the diabetes. We must not forget that maternal age is a risk factor for the occurrence of chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome. Indeed as these women show an excellent overall health and life expectancy has lengthened cannot be said that the age at onset of menopause has changed. Women often postpone motherhood because they often prefer to devote to work and career, but unfortunately are still very difficult to get pregnant after forty, and the techniques of assisted reproduction do not guarantee the same results that can provide younger women.