Older mothers epidemic: The real deal

I was just reading this article on the Times Online website (see excerpt below). I thought that it is very one-sided to say that women who wait until their mid-thirties to have children are taking unnecessary health risks.

That's fine, but what about the women who want to have children but who can't find fathers? If we can't find sex partners, how are we supposed to even get pregnant? At what age should women start worrying about their biological clocks when they're unmarried, unattached and are not sexually active? I wish some of those gynaecologists would try to answer those questions. I wonder how many of them are in this same siutation?

I wonder if anyone has ever considered that there are career women who are career women because they don't have a choice. There are women who would rather be barefoot and pregnant but can't meet men so, instead, they plug themselves into their work (and become good at it).

A friend of mine told me that she got so angry when people would tell her that she has a boyfriend/partner/husband because she is very attractive. People accuse her of lying when she says she doesn't. Since she is attractive, she doesn't get introduced to single men because people think that she doesn't need to meet more men. Strange. I know many beautiful women who say that they want to have a relationship and get married and take care of the house, but that they haven't been on a date since leaving university.

I find it strange that all of my unmarried women friends are not in relationships. There is nothing wrong with them, so...what gives?

Our lives conflict with media images that tell us that women who are beautiful, stylish, brilliant, confident and emotionally mature are already mothers with loving husbands, or have many suitors, or enjoy the luxury of serial dating. Someone is telling us that we have it all, but we don't.

In truth, we go to the spa for oxygen facials, eyelash perms, pedicures and a brazilian wax to feel sexy... prepared for that fateful meeting. For all the trouble and expense, we might as well grow beards, because it all seems to be in vain.

Then, we step out of the spa and glide past women with beards, avec husband and children. Did they have beards before or after they got married?

"Where are all the single men who are supposed to be chasing us?" This question may sound like rubbish to some people, but really it is a myth that all of us young bright women are having hot sex with all the eligible bachelors of the world.

I would really like to hear the men's side because it seems to me that if we're not getting any, then they should have the same problem.

September 16, 2005

Older mothers 'epidemic' a danger to health, doctors warn women
By Sam Lister

Doctors warn women not to put their careers before having children - they may live to regret it

AN “EPIDEMIC of middle-aged pregnancy” threatens the health of mothers and babies as a growing number of women delay having children to pursue their careers.

An editorial today in the British Medical Journal gives warning of the risks run by women who wait until their mid-thirties before trying for children. It refers to the growing number of cases of age-related fertility problems and other health complications.

The authors, all obstetricians and gynaecologists, said that the “have it all” generation of women who go for careers first, then try for children, were defying the natural progression of their biological clocks. They said that many seemed unaware that they could miss out on motherhood altogether.