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Not Older, Better
Motherhood After 35
By Kelly Burgess
The reason pregnant women in the United States are considered "older mothers" at age 35 is based on a fairly simple risk/benefit analysis. Dr. Stephen Emery, site director for the department of obstetrics and gynecology and director of maternal fetal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, explains that, at age 35, the risk of losing a pregnancy due to invasive tests is equal to the risk of having a baby with a chromosomal disorder such as Down's syndrome. Each year after that, the benefits of testing begin to outweigh the risks quite dramatically.
However, even those risks have to be put into a total perspective. According to Dr. Emery, in spite of those increased risks, only 20 percent of Down's syndrome children are born to women older than 35. The larger percentage, 80 percent, are born to women younger than 35. In his ideal world, every woman would have definitive tests for chromosomal abnormalities, but since that's not the best approach from a risk/benefit standpoint, he does recommend all pregnant women over 35 have whatever tests are available to accurately gauge the health of the baby. Dr. Emery says this testing is merely good pregnancy management.
Once chromosomal abnormalities are ruled out, Dr. Emery says a pregnant woman over age 35 will probably have a pregnancy very similar to that of a younger woman, assuming she's in good health to begin with.
"The longer you live on the planet the more things go wrong," says Dr. Emery. "If you're 37 and obese with a seizure disorder and hypertension, the pregnancy is at risk not just from these conditions, but from their treatments as well. If you're a healthy 35-year-old, once you cross the bridge of chromosomal abnormalities, you are probably on your way to a pretty uneventful pregnancy, health wise."
He adds that it's always best to optimize your chances for a healthy pregnancy by getting healthy before you get pregnant.
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