The average age of first-time moms is increasing, and more moms are having babies (first-time or otherwise) at later ages.
Actress Sienna Miller says that pregnancy in her forties is “the best,” because it’s a more grounded age, compared to the 20s and 30s. While the percentage of moms having babies after age 40 is still pretty low, there’s some evidence supporting her views that having babies later in life can have some advantages.
Here’s what Miller and other moms find changes with later pregnancies and parenting.
Sienna Miller Feels More Grounded
For many moms, waiting a bit longer to have kids is about financial stability and career establishment. While Miller isn’t exactly citing those reasons, there’s no doubt that her career has been a busy one, with dozens of movies and several tv series over the past two decades.
In fact, since she had her first baby at 29, she’s also got about a decade and a half of experience of raising a child while also starring in tv dramas like Anatomy Of A Scandal and movies like Horizon: An American Saga. That means she’s speaking from deep knowledge when she talks about the difference between juggling parenting and work in her thirties and now! She told Glamour:
“Having had a baby at 29, and then having a baby at 42, and now 44, it’s so much easier when you don’t have the conflict of feeling scattered and like you want to be doing X, Y, Z. If I’m in bed at 9 p.m. with a book, I’m so happy now. And now I’ve got the excuse to do it. Life is in a more grounded space. I think the 30s are chaos.”
Gender & Age Bias Can Be A Factor!
Miller says she’s sick of hearing people in their 40s say, “I’m so old.”
Instead, at 44, she says she’s “more grounded” and that by this age, we’re better aware of who we are and make decisions more based on our own self-knowledge than on others’ judgments.
Also, there’s been a longstanding narrative about women’s aging that doesn’t always apply the same way to men. She said:
“We don’t judge men who are having kids in their 80s. Why on earth is there any sort of narrative?”
Notably, Miller says she froze her eggs when she was younger, which sidesteps some concerns about pregnancies deemed “advanced maternal age.”
What’s Better For Kids Of Older Moms?
There are great moms (and dads!) at every age, but a 2017 study found that older moms are likely to have better outcomes in a few ways.
According to the release from AARHUS University, the study of nearly 5,000 moms checked in with their kids at ages 7, 11, and 15, and found that overall, the moms who had later childbirth ages were less likely to use harsh parenting methods, and that their kids were less likely to have emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties.
There was a significant linear relationship between older maternal age and the strengths and difficulties total problem score at 7 years and 11 years, with scores decreasing as maternal age increased, indicating better social development for children of older mothers.
The study compared the ages of mothers at the birth of their child, with ages ranging from 17 to 47. The decrease in harsh parenting and problematic behaviors with older moms was small, but linear and big enough to be significant.
In other words, it doesn’t show young moms parenting badly, but does suggest that parenting might come from a calmer place for older moms.
The Average Maternal Age
In the U.S., the average age at first birth, as well as for second and third pregnancies, increased by about a year between 2016 and 2023, according to the CDC.
“[T]he average age of first-time mothers has increased from 26.6 years in 2016 to 27.5 years in 2023…This trend isn’t limited to first-time moms; the average age for women having their second and third children has also increased by about one year.”
At the same time, there was about a 26% decrease in first-time births among moms under 20, a 9% decrease among moms between 20 and 24, and increases of 12.6% among moms between 30 and 34 and 25% among moms over 35.
Important Note: It must be emphasized that there are some additional risks for moms over 35, and that a pregnancy after that point is a personal decision that may be best made with input from one's doctor.
Finances, the job market, COVID, and many other factors could all play a part in this, but the overall picture suggests that many women agree that motherhood can be more manageable with a little wait.
