Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband's religious views don't allow for abortion, and I'm not sure if I would be comfortable either.

You can have a child with birth defects or health issues at any age. Having a child is rolling the dice.

+1 Friend of a friend was 21 & first baby had Down's syndrome. Dr never tested her because of her age. It is very, very rare, but it did happen to her.

I had a healthy boy conceived at age 41, never even had diagnostic testing (CVS or amnio), just screening test where my odds of common trisomies were 1/10,000. it is dfinitely possible. and odds are in your favor.

If you get pregnant and stay pregnant, the odds are very good that the baby will be healthy. There are no guarantees, of course, but healthy baby is by far the most likely outcome.

I was 38 with #2 and he's a healthy, awesome 12 year old. When we had the various tests done (due to AMA), my results showed the various outcome likelihoods to be the same as a 24-year-old. Statistics are too complicated for you to use them as a gauge of what your personal outcome will be.

Congrats!

Anonymous wrote:My husband's religious views don't allow for abortion, and I'm not sure if I would be comfortable either.

You can have a child with birth defects or health issues at any age. Having a child is rolling the dice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very high. Not sure why you expect otherwise.

Not very high. Higher than at 28, but still in the 1-2% range.

Op asked about the odds of having a healthy child. I think you're answering the opposite question.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very high. Not sure why you expect otherwise.

Not very high. Higher than at 28, but still in the 1-2% range.

I believe the "very high" meant a very high chance of a healthy baby.

Anonymous wrote:Very high. Not sure why you expect otherwise.

Not very high. Higher than at 28, but still in the 1-2% range.

Very high. Not sure why you expect otherwise.

Is this your first time posting on this board, OP? If you've spent any time here you'd know that there are multiple threads on TTC, pregnancy, and giving birth at AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) and many, many of us had uncomplicated pregnancies and healthy babies at age 38 and beyond. Of course there is an increased risk of infertility, birth defects, and other complications as you age. Do a tiny bit of research, please.

For stuff that can be detected by amnio it's probably around 98-99%.

Things like autism can't be screened for but also rise with age.

That said, the odds of having a healthy kid are overwhelmingly in your favor.

Anonymous wrote:My husband's religious views don't allow for abortion, and I'm not sure if I would be comfortable either.

Hey OP, congratulations.

Most kids don't have birth defects, whatever the age of their mother.

This paper has adjusted odds ratios for the incidence of a number of different birth defects, depending on maternal age. Odds of some defects are higher for older mothers, but they are pretty low overall, so the fact that an older mother is 50 percent more likely to have a child with Problem X isn't a big deal if the overall odds of Problem X are low.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4532312/

My SIL had one when she was two months shy of 39 and my brother was 40.

My husband's religious views don't allow for abortion, and I'm not sure if I would be comfortable either.