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SPOTLIGHT ON HEALTH
Baby Talk - To Have Or Have Not
Deciding whether or not to have a
baby can be one tough choice,
particularly for a woman in her
transitional years. While your biological
clock certainly hasn't wound down
completely .. time is no longer on your
side. You realize, and accurately so, that
you won't stay fertile forever and that, if
you want to get pregnant, you need to
make a decision relatively soon.
Below age thirty-five, giving birth
offers some important benefits. Since the
early seventies, we have known that
having a baby when you're in your
twenties cuts your risk for breast cancer.
If you breast-feed your baby, your
chances of developing the disease drop
even further. What's more, we find that
young women, who have experienced
pregnancy and childbirth, have healthier
hearts after delivery than they did before
they got pregnant-for the very same
reason that regular aerobic workouts can
improve your cardiovascular health.
Pregnancy and delivery are also easier
on a younger woman. When you're in
your twenties, your muscles are young,
strong, and quite able to withstand the
stress of pregnancy and childbirth. A
younger body is also more able to tolerate
the many other physiological shifts of
childbearing, including changes in blood
sugar levels, blood pressure, and the
added strain on the heart and lungs.
Once you reach your late thirties and
your forties, however, you face more
medical drawbacks. Even if you're in
pretty good shape, your bones, muscles,
heart and lungs are older, and thus less
able to tolerate the extra wear and tear. If
you're over thirty-five, you're also more
likely to experience much more dramatic
changes in blood sugar and blood
pressure than you would have a few years
earlier.
You also may have less overall energy,
particularly, if you haven't followed the
guidelines of a good health plan.
Reduced stamina makes it harder to go
through pregnancy as well as to meet the
needs of a demanding infant and,
eventually, an energetic toddler.
Transitional women also run a greater
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risk of miscarriage and fetal loss. A
thirty-five-year-old woman is more likely
to suffer a miscarriage than a younger
woman, and a woman of forty is likelier
still. What's more, certain medical
conditions that are more common in
women over thirty-five, such as diabetes,
can be aggravated by pregnancy.
After age forty, the risk for toxemia of
pregnancy, or preeclampsia, a condition
marked by hypertension, edema
(swelling, usually of the feet, ankles and
hands), and headaches increases
dramatically. A review of studies,
published in the Obstetrical and
Gynecologic Survey of 1988, reveals that
while the risk for toxemia is only 4% in
pregnant women between the ages of
thirty-five and thirty-nine, that number
rises to 41% after age forty. If not treated
properly, usually with bed rest and plenty
of fluids, preeclampsia can lead to
seizures in the mother or even coma,
induction of labor, or cesarean section.
Finally, if you need to rely on fertility
drugs to help you conceive, you stand a
higher chance of having a multiple birth
which can be risky for you and your
babies. Multiple births are more likely to
trigger hypertension, preeclampsia, and
premature delivery.
Then there's the infant's health to
consider. Most transitional women give
birth to perfectly healthy babies, but after
age thirty-five the risk for certain
congenital problems increases. For
example, while the chance of having a
baby bom with Down's syndrome is less
than 5% at age thirty-five, that number
rises to 15% by the time you reach forty.
Research at the University of Washington
in Seattle studied thousands of women
over thirty-five who gave birth to their
first babies between 1984 and 1988 and
found that their babies had a higher risk
for low birthweight and prematurity than
babies bom to younger mothers-and that
this risk increased progressively with the
mother's age. Today many, medical
problems can be detected and managed
effectively during pregnancy, but overall,
the babv of a transitional woman is at
higher risk.
In addition to the physical dis
advantages we've already discussed, be
coming a mother in your transitional
years has some psychological drawbacks
also.
The restriction of freedom that's part
and parcel of being a mother can hit hard
if you're in your transitional years. When
you were “childless” or “child-free,” as
many women without children prefer to
be called, your schedule was quite
flexible. With a child, however, you have
the constant care of another to consider.
After twenty years or more of being one's
own boss, some women don't want to
give up their independence, particulary
those career oriented.
A new addition to the family changes
one's priorities. This is not an easy pill for
some women to swallow, especially those
who have already invested the past
decade or two building a career, that in
large part, defines who they are.
Even if you can afford to hire help,
balancing the conflicting demands of
career and family can be emotionally and
physically exhausting. Working mothers
often live in a constant state of guilt:
when they're at home, they feel guilty that
they're not working; when they're at the
office, they agonize over what they are
missing at home. This is an ongoing
dilemma for working mothers, but it is
most acute when they feel their child's
babyhood is speeding by.
If you're married or have lived with the
same partner for a number of years
without children, adding a child to your
love nest can ruffle more than a few
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