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Hollywood stars 'fuelling the rise of older mothers'
Sophie Goodchild, Health Editor19.03.08
Hollywood stars who give birth over the age of 40 are encouraging women to delay motherhood, a leading fertility doctor have warned.
This week, Halle Berry, 41, became the latest actress to give birth for the first time as an older mother.
Professor Brian Lieberman, an IVF expert, said women were taking a risk if they used high-profile actresses such as Berry and Nicole Kidman, now pregnant at 40, as role models for late motherhood.
Rates of miscarriage rise from 15 per cent to more than 25 per cent once a mother is over 40. The risks rise further from 42 and there is a greater chance of Down's syndrome.
Professor Lieberman, an adviser to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority-said many wanting to conceive over 40 would have to use donated eggs. "Women don't know how these celebrities conceived - it could have been through egg donation."
He added there was a shortage of egg donors in Britain, where it is illegal to buy and sell eggs or sperm, unlike in the US.
Professor Lieberman, fertility chief at Manchester's St Mary's Hospital, said: "Ordinary women see someone like Nicole Kidman having a child and they think they are all right. But it can't be said often enough that women's fertility falls with age and there's no real way of preserving that fertility."
Other high-profile women to have had babies later in life include Madonna, who was 42 when she gave birth to son Rocco in 2000 after becoming a mother for the first time at 37.
Government figures show the conception rate for British women in their forties almost doubled between 1991 and 2006, with older women in London leading the trend. The rise has been attributed to social and economic factors, as more women put their careers first.
Reader views (4)
Women and men are more health conscious this day and age- not that this will delay fertility issues, but it will aid in helping a woman over the age of 39 with conception. For any Dr to say a woman shouldn't conceive after age 40 is rediculous (Hollywood mom or stuck in the suburbs mom). Some women don't have a choice since maybe they weren't married at a young age- also, mother's who have children already that started later (mid 30s') may fall into the over 40 catagory if they aren't finished adding to their families. Either way, having a baby young or old, you still need encouraging Doc's and one's that 'want' to help you conceive and sustain a pregnancy. It can be done!! What happened many many years ago when older women didn't have a choice of how old they were when they had children? My grandmother was 42 when she had my mom (her 10th child) and I am very thankful that she did- my mom is the most amazing women I've ever met!!!! Go for it, don't let anyone discourage you in your decisions ~ stay healthy and take your vitamins!
- Wlb, Midwest
I wish those Hollywood Stars would stop doing that.
- Rich, San Angelo, USA
Unfortunately what's happening in far too many cases is that women forestall having children until they're in their 40s, cannot conceive naturally, get pregnant with a"engineered"baby and many of these children end up premature & damaged living the first few months of their lives in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with God only knows what type of long term outcome they'll have. Mind you, many do just fine but only because our expertise and continuously being challenged with these children with modern technology makes it easier & easier to save their lives.
We really need to stop playing God. The future generations that we're creating now are probably all inbred, related results of anonymous sperm & egg donors.
- C, Los Angeles, USA
Or.....maybe they, like me, have just taken that long to meet the right person to have a baby with rather than rushing into childbirth with the first man that comes along like so many of the youngsters in this country today. Neither situation is ideal....its just life.
- A, London
