Outlook piece in the Post today: don't delay conceiving

[Anonymous]

I thought this piece by an ob was on point and touching. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/02/26/im-a-high-risk-pregnancy-expert-so-why-didnt-i-worry-about-my-own-fertility/

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing. That is a great piece.

[Anonymous]

It is touching as a personal story but the facts provided are questionable/incomplete and I would expect more from a doctor who knows the field. For example, it is not true that any pregnant woman over the age of 35 is automatically considered high risk. Also, while she includes IVF stats by age group, why not include non-IVF conception stats as well? Including only IVF provides a skewed sample.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was honest and brave but still surprisingly naive. There have been many many articles in the popular media as far back as the '90s when I was in my early 20s about how you can't wait to have kids. I am always surprised when people say no one told them this would happen. Everyone has been telling us! And people wait too long because they prioritize work or because they haven't found the right partner. But if your priority really is to have a family, then you have 20 years after college to make the choices that make family life most likely. I'm 40 and I've known this at least since my early 20s and I don't know why it was a surprise to her.

[Anonymous]

I'm 30 and this article was a big fat duh. The media has been saying my whole life not to wait too late to have kids. Makes me wonder what rock the author has been living under.

[Anonymous]

This is a white problem. Never comfy or rich enough to begin a family . Then you miss out. Other races don't act like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a white problem. Never comfy or rich enough to begin a family . Then you miss out. Other races don't act like this.

Right. They act worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a white problem. Never comfy or rich enough to begin a family . Then you miss out. Other races don't act like this.

Oh F off. Sounds like you've never stepped foot into a fertility clinic waiting room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is touching as a personal story but the facts provided are questionable/incomplete and I would expect more from a doctor who knows the field. For example, it is not true that any pregnant woman over the age of 35 is automatically considered high risk. Also, while she includes IVF stats by age group, why not include non-IVF conception stats as well? Including only IVF provides a skewed sample.

I know that my OB automatically considers AMA pregnancies to be high risk. There is extra monitoring involved. It doesn't mean that all of those pregnancies will see complications. I had a baby at age 39 with no complications but it was still considered high risk simply because of my age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is touching as a personal story but the facts provided are questionable/incomplete and I would expect more from a doctor who knows the field. For example, it is not true that any pregnant woman over the age of 35 is automatically considered high risk. Also, while she includes IVF stats by age group, why not include non-IVF conception stats as well? Including only IVF provides a skewed sample.

I know that my OB automatically considers AMA pregnancies to be high risk. There is extra monitoring involved. It doesn't mean that all of those pregnancies will see complications. I had a baby at age 39 with no complications but it was still considered high risk simply because of my age.

This is correct. All 35+ are considered high risk.

[Anonymous]

At least 2 of my friends turning 35 feel they are in no hurry, & have plenty of time to have kids. I tell them about my experience of IF and miscarriage starting at 35, but they see it as 'bad luck' instead of, in fact a medically expected probability. I think the Atlantic article is responsible for a lot of this thinking, although I know it wasn't her intention. I also think it's common to feel you might not even want kids at 34, then suddenly at 36, realize it's important to you. I don't know the answer to these issues, but it's important women understand how difficult it gets after 35. My friends tell me all the time they are not worried because so and so got pregnant at 40. I'm considering posting this article on my facebook feed.

[Anonymous]

Leave it to DCUM to take something like this and make it a racial issue! Good grief. Yeah, so different cultural norms prevail amongst different kinds of people. That's true enough. But let's not "blame" a particular race of culture or get all "this race knows better than that race" on this. That's just getting evil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a white problem. Never comfy or rich enough to begin a family . Then you miss out. Other races don't act like this.

Oh F off. Sounds like you've never stepped foot into a fertility clinic waiting room.

Indeed! You see people of all colors and creeds.

-- black woman who was Shady Grove Fertility from 2008-2014

[Anonymous]

Anyone seen Idiocracy? It's coming true...

[Anonymous]

You can thank 10:50 for that.