“The best time to have a baby is up to 35. It always was, and always will be.”– Dr. Susan Bewley.
A prominent London obstetrician seems to be waging a war against mid-life moms. Not only should we not have babies after the age of 35, but she calls late life pregnancies an epidemic, no better than teenage pregnancies! Let’s face it, very few of us got pregnant in the back seat of a car at the drive-in. Most older moms choose to become pregnant but the good doctor feels we should just stop producing after 35.
And although the doctor was speaking specifically about women in London where she practices, I was disturbed at her comments. In the August 13th issue of Britain’s Sunday Times she says that women who wait to have babies in their late thirties and early forties place a strain on that country’s National Health Service resources. She wants the London ministers to formally categorize middle age pregnancy as a health hazard and would like them to come up with guidelines to address the problem as she sees it.
Bewley advises women to have their children between the ages of 20 and 35, what she calls the “optimal time for reproduction” . She says that “rational” women should choose to have their children before they turn 35! Her comments sound like something out of the dark ages. She even states that women who choose to delay childbearing until later in life are “defying nature.”
It gets worse. She also had this to say on the BBC‘s news website , “I don’t want to blame women, or make them feel anxious or frightened. The reasons for these difficulties lie not with women but with a distorted and uninformed view from society, employers, and health planners. Doctors and healthcare planners need to grasp this threat to public health and support women to achieve biologically optimal childbirth. Where we can, we should be helping women to have children earlier.”
I’m sorry but no one has the right to tell a woman when she should have a baby. As long as she understands the risks it’s a personal choice. Being pregnant at any age is a risk. But just look at the results– you get to create life. That’s an awesome responsibility and truly an amazing miracle.