The Joys of Older Motherhood: A questionnaire-based survey of mothers who delivered over the age of 50 years

George-Carey, Rhiannon; Woolley, Maria; Fortune, Lorna; Ersan, B.; Govind, Abha; Yoong, Wai

doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.07.051

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Others focused on experiences of medically assisted reproduction (MAR) in connection to older motherhood ( Friese et al , 2008 ; Boivin et al , 2009 ; Mac Dougall et al , 2012 ; Chen and Landau, 2015 ). Another subgroup of studies addressed aspects influencing the overall wellbeing of family members, such as the timing of first birth ( Engelhardt and Schreyer, 2014 ), becoming a mother over the age of 50 ( George-Carey et al , 2021 ), or pregnancy complications of single women ( Mandel, 2010 ). Finally, one study focused on the overall wellbeing of children of older mothers ( Goisis, 2015 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fact that ‘older’ parents have more life experience, are more likely to be financially stable, and feel more ‘ready’ for parenthood might compensate for poorer physical and developmental birth outcomes ( Myrskylä et al , 2017 ). Although there is limited research on the lived experiences of ‘older’ parents, it associates parenthood at advanced age with higher levels of wellbeing ( George-Carey et al , 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building a family at advanced parental age: a systematic review on the risks and opportunities for parents and their offspring

Neeser,

Martani,

De Clercq

et al. 2023

Human Reproduction Open

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STUDY QUESTION What is the existing empirical literature on the psychosocial health and wellbeing of the parents and offspring born at an advanced parental age (APA), defined as 40 years onwards? SUMMARY ANSWER Although the studies show discrepancies in defining who is an APA parent and an imbalance in the empirical evidence for offspring, mothers and fathers, there is a drive towards finding psychotic disorders and (neuro-)developmental disorders among the offspring; overall the observed advantages and disadvantages are difficult to compare. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY In many societies, children are born to parents at advanced ages and there is rising attention in the literature towards the consequences of this trend. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION The systematic search was conducted in six electronic databases (Pubmed including MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, PsycInfo, CINAHL and SocINDEX), and was limited to papers published between 2000 and 2021 and to English-language articles. Search terms used across all six electronic databases were: (‘advanced parental age’ OR ‘advanced maternal age’ OR ‘advanced paternal age’ OR ‘advanced reproductive age’ OR ‘late parent*’ OR ‘late motherhood’ OR ‘late fatherhood’) AND (‘IVF’ OR ‘in vitro fertilization’ OR ‘in-vitro-fertilization’ OR ‘fertilization in vitro’ OR ‘ICSI’ OR ‘intracytoplasmic sperm injection’ OR ‘reproductive techn*’ OR ‘assisted reproductive technolog*’ OR ‘assisted reproduction’ OR ‘assisted conception’ OR ‘reproduction’ OR ‘conception’ OR ‘birth*’ OR ‘pregnan*’) AND (‘wellbeing’ OR ‘well-being’ OR ‘psycho-social’ OR ‘social’ OR ‘ethical’ OR ‘right to reproduce’ OR ‘justice’ OR ‘family functioning’ OR ‘parental competenc*’ OR ‘ageism’ OR ‘reproductive autonomy’ OR ‘outcome’ OR ‘risk*’ OR ‘benefit*’). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS The included papers were empirical studies in English published between 2000 and 2021, where the study either examined the wellbeing and psychosocial health of parents and/or their children, or focused on parental competences of APA parents or on the functioning of families with APA parents. A quality assessment of the identified studies was performed with the QATSDD tool. Additionally, 20% of studies were double-checked at the data extraction and quality assessment stage to avoid bias. The variables sought were: the geographical location, the year of publication, the methodological approach, the definitions of APA used, what study group was at the center of the research, what research topic was studied, and what advantages and disadvantages of APA were found. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE A total number of 5403 articles were identified, leading to 2543 articles being included for title and abstract screening after removal of duplicates. This resulted in 98 articles included for a full-text reading by four researchers. Ultimately, 69 studies were included in the final sample. The key results concerned four aspects relevant to the research goals. (1) The studies showed discrepancies in defining who is an APA parent. (2) There was an imbalance in the empirical evidence produced for different participant groups (mothers, fathers and offspring), with offspring being the most studied study subjects. (3) The research topics studied underlined the increased risks of neuro-developmental and psychotic disorders among offspring. (4) The observed advantages and disadvantages were varied and could not be compared, especially for the offspring of APA parents. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Only English-language studies, published between 2000 and 2021, found in the above-mentioned databases were considered for this review. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS More research is necessary to understand the risks and benefits of building a family at an advanced parental age for the offspring when they reach adulthood. Furthermore, studies that explore the perspective of older fathers and older parents from non-Western societies would be highly informative. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) The writing of this manuscript was permitted by financial support provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Weave/Lead Agency funding program, grant number 10001AL_197415/1, project title ‘Family Building at Advanced Parental Age: An Interdisciplinary Approach’). The funder had no role in the drafting of this manuscript and the views expressed therein are those of the authors. The authors have no conflicts of interest. REGISTRATION NUMBER This systematic review is registered in Prospero: CRD42022304564.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a family at advanced parental age: a systematic review on the risks and opportunities for parents and their offspring

Neeser,

Martani,

De Clercq

et al. 2023

Human Reproduction Open

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show abstract

“…First, the inability to conceive and the difficulty of finding a suitable partner who is as equally committed to parenthood are for many 40+ women the main reason to “delay” motherhood rather than higher education and employment factors (Baldwin 2019 ). Secondly, these older mothers overwhelmingly report high levels of well-being, which stands in stark contrast with the dominant risk-centered approach to advanced motherhood (Steiner 2007 ; George-Carey 2021 ). Women who become mothers later onwards feel more prepared for motherhood, and perceive of themselves as being more responsible and patient (Aldrighi et al 2016 ).…”

Section: A New Way Of Thinking About the Ethics Of Advanced Motherhoodmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…This brings us back to the second part of our question: Who are these “older” mothers in terms of their lived experiences? Currently, there are very few studies that explore the lived experiences of “older” mothers or pregnant women or birthing persons (Aldrighi et al 2016 and 2018 , Baldwin 2019 ; Friese et al 2008 ; George-Carey et al 2021 ), and the great majority of these does not focus explicitly on 40+ mothers (but rather take 35 as a cutoff). Existing research suggests that those experiences do not match with many of the assumptions made in the literature on advanced motherhood.…”

Section: A New Way Of Thinking About the Ethics Of Advanced Motherhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking advanced motherhood: a new ethical narrative

De Clercq,

Martani,

Vulliemoz

et al. 2023

Med Health Care and Philos

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The aim of the study is to rethink the ethics of advanced motherhood. In the literature, delayed childbearing is usually discussed in the context of reproductive justice, and in relationship to ethical issues associated with the use and risk of assisted reproductive technologies. We aim to go beyond these more “traditional” ways in which reproductive ethics is framed by revisiting ethics itself through the lens of the figure of the so-called “older” mother. For this purpose, we start by exploring some of the deep seated socio-cultural discourses in the context of procreation: ageism, ableism and the widespread bias towards geneticism and pronatalism. Afterwards, we provide a critical overview of the key arguments against or in support of advanced motherhood. We then briefly discuss how entrenchment by both sides has produced an impasse in the debate on the ethics of advanced motherhood and proceed by arguing that it is fundamental to bring about a change in this narrative. For this purpose, we will revisit the feminist usage of the concept of vulnerability which will allow us both to criticize culturally prescribed norms about motherhood and to address the painful reality of age-related fertility decline. In the last section, we argue that instead of defining “older” motherhood as an ethical problem, we should problematize the fact that female reproductive ageing is an understudied and ill-sourced topic. We believe that allocating resources to research to better understand female reproductive ageing is not only ethically permissible, but might even be ethically desirable.

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The Joys of Older Motherhood: A questionnaire-based survey of mothers who delivered over the age of 50 years

Cited by 2 publications

References 6 publications

Building a family at advanced parental age: a systematic review on the risks and opportunities for parents and their offspring

Building a family at advanced parental age: a systematic review on the risks and opportunities for parents and their offspring

Rethinking advanced motherhood: a new ethical narrative

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