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I have to disagree with other reviewers who have found this book discouraging and scary. I have had the opposite reaction. I found this book very encouraging and informative. For example, the author talks about certain medical problems occurring more for older moms than younger moms (e.g., gestational diabetes and hypertension). The author also points out that moms of all ages face these medical problems, and that age is only one factor that increases your chances of having these conditions (weight is another factor). I also like the fact that the author clearly asserts that age alone does not make a pregnancy high-risk.

The author also cites empirical research throughout the book, and anecdotal research as well. She also provides statistics that I found refreshing (e.g., in the 1920’s, the average age for having a last baby was 42, and in 1945 57 in 1000 women aged 35 to 39 had babies). She follows these statistics by saying, “contemporary women are mostly very different from their ancestors at age 35 and over and have great advantages…” She then goes on to talk about how contemporary women have many strengths, including better prenatal care.

I learned a great deal about how to prepare for conception in reading this book, including fertility awareness, and the possible impact of substances such as caffeine on fertility. I learned that although scientific studies indicate that fertility takes a dip around age 35 and a larger dip around age 39, every day nearly 1200 babies are born to American mothers between 35 and 44. I found this to be another encouraging piece of information. Before reading this book, I was not aware of everything to address in the preconception physical exam with a physician, such as catching up on immunizations and learning whether there are environmental hazards in your community or workplace.

Perhaps most reassuring to me was this, “Outside of the increase in chromosomal abnormalities, a healthy 35-plus woman without pregnancy complications is as likely as a younger woman to have a baby without medical problems.” Even so, for a 37 year old woman, the risk of having a Down’s syndrome baby is 1 in 227. The book is highly informative about a range of other issues too, such as amniocentesis and other prenatal tests, and your pregnancy month by month.

I highly recommend this book and found it to be supportive, encouraging, practical, and backed up by research.

Rating: 5 / 5

More recent books on the market have more up to date information. A better one would be Midlife Motherhood, by Jann Blackstone-Ford.
Rating: 3 / 5

I found the information in the book to be quite positive and helpful. It’s not overly scientific but does provide the information most needed for women over 35 to make pregnancy decisions.
Rating: 4 / 5