Anonymous wrote:Rare is a first baby at 44, uncommon is an oops baby after several children already at 44.

Yes, this. Although I'd guess if you have been religious about birth control up until 44, you just don't know if you're one of the many naturally fertile types. My mom had me at 43, and my sister had an oops baby at 42. (I had my tubes tied at 40, as a result of that family history.)

I've done a lot of geneological research that had me combing through old census records. Prior to the advent of birth control and IVF, there were a lot of women that just never had any children; a lot of women who had a lot of children starting in their 20s and well into their 40's; and a lot of women who died or become infertile due to childbirth (so maybe could have continued to have children into their 40s had they not died or had massive pelvic damage due to something like a breech delivery or unsanitary conditions). The best predictor of whether you can get pregnant at an "advanced" age is genetics -- if you have family members that got pregnant in their '40s, or also if you have relatives that lived to be 100+ (as there is some research that the longevity gene is linked to the later-fertility gene). If you're curious, just pull an old census record and start looking at ages and numbers of children. There's one year (I can't remember which -- maybe 1900) where they also asked women how many children they'd given birth to, and how many were still alive. It's a chilling column to scan and makes one very appreciative of vaccines and antibiotics.

Rare is a first baby at 44, uncommon is an oops baby after several children already at 44.

Have a friend who had one to her great surprise at 52.

Yes, much more likely if you've had multiple pregnancies though. My grandmother had her seventh child at 46. Her eldest was pregnant at the same time - was 21 or 22 I think.

First birth is what's most important, age at first birth.

Yes but much more common if it’s not your first birth. My grandmother had her last kid - my uncle - when she was 44. There was a 22 year age gap between her oldest and youngest!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did at 44. Both of my grandmothers had their last at 45+.

It is certainly uncommon now, but I'm not so sure it was uncommon a couple of generations ago, before birth control, when women continued bearing children as long as they physically could.

This.
It isn't like women started having children in their 40s only with the advent of IVF and donor eggs.
I come from a very large family. Both of my grandmothers, several of my great grandmothers, and some of their sisters all had children in their 40s. I think it was much more commonplace back then than people realize.

Right. I mean, 3% of abortions are women in the 40+ age group: https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/report_downloads/us-abortion-patients-table1.pdf. Add to that women using effective birth control, and there are a lot of 40+ women who would have been getting pregnant in the bygone days.

My mom had her two kids at 42 and 44. I had my two at 42 and 44.

Anonymous wrote:I did at 44. Both of my grandmothers had their last at 45+.

It is certainly uncommon now, but I'm not so sure it was uncommon a couple of generations ago, before birth control, when women continued bearing children as long as they physically could.

This.
It isn't like women started having children in their 40s only with the advent of IVF and donor eggs.
I come from a very large family. Both of my grandmothers, several of my great grandmothers, and some of their sisters all had children in their 40s. I think it was much more commonplace back then than people realize.

I have a friend who married at 40 then had three children, last one born at 45.

I did at 44. Both of my grandmothers had their last at 45+.

It is certainly uncommon now, but I'm not so sure it was uncommon a couple of generations ago, before birth control, when women continued bearing children as long as they physically could.

as a few PP have mentioned,

Yes possible
but not common
and is more likely if you have already had children prior to 44
or the result of ART with DE

Everyone will have a story of their mom or grandma or aunt or their sister. It isn't that it isn't possible but it really is VERY rare to carry to term at 44 years of age. Yes, I know its possible and yes I know you know X amount of women but I think we need to be honest that its not common. And the people who you know within the last 20 years probably half of them have used ART that they kept private. And yes sometimes people don't even tell their best friends about ART. You never REALLY know is people got pregnant "naturally" or not.

^^to add, my paternal grandmother had 8 children, 7 of whom survived beyond toddlerhood, and 2 of them besides my dad were born after she was forty. She was 31 when she married.

My dad was born (at home on a farm) when his mother was 45. His father was born when my great grandmother was in her early 40s (her first child, after which she had two more).