2024-01-16 16:00:03
A pregnant woman lies on her bed with monitoring devices placed on her stomach as she prepares to give birth in the maternity ward of a hospital, in Paris, June 29, 2022. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
The adventure of motherhood is just beginning for Mathilde – her little Salomé, aged two and a half weeks, finds ” gently “ its rhythm in the family apartment in Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine) –, and the ” young “ mom, an adjective with which she herself has a little fun, well aware, at 41, of having exceeded the average age of the first child by ten years, lists the advantages of having become a mother “with maturity”.
“In my family circle, among friends, but also with midwife colleagues [un métier qu’elle exerce depuis vingt ans], I have a lot of feedback on pregnancy but also, more generally, on parenthood, she reports on condition of anonymity, like all of the witnesses cited. I can share my questions regarding the rhythm of babies, material equipment and the education of children with all those of my generation who have already been there. » Not to mention the donations of all kinds which, she emphasizes, have poured in: “My partner likes to say that we have clothes until the little one is 5 years old…”
The forty-year-old is one of the numerous participants in our call for testimonies on late motherhood. Until then, contrary to the overall birth rate, late births had not stopped increasing since the 1980s. From that decade onwards, fertility increased uninterruptedly, noted an INSEE note devoted to the subject, in January 2022, first for women aged 40 to 42, then in the 1990s for those aged 43 to 45 years old, and, finally, in the 2000s, for those aged 46 or over. A “continuous sliding” towards ages “always higher”thanks to the use of medically assisted procreation (MAP) in particular, observe, on their scale, doctors specializing in reproduction.
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Is this the end of a trend? In 2023, for the first time, births in this age group will also mark time. These births represent less than 5% of the annual total. A ratio to be placed in the context of a decline, also regular, in the average age – 31 years today – of all pregnancies.
“Say to yourself “I can still””
It is difficult to know precisely how many of these babies are the result of a last pregnancy – following several children – or the very first. Demographers say more, on the other hand, regarding “reasons” which lead these women, these couples, to late plans to have children. “Many factors contribute to this postponement, such as the lengthening of studies for women and men, the establishment of women’s careers, more dynamic unions, with meetings and separations more frequent than in the past…”explains Eva Beaujouan, demographer at the Wittgenstein Center at the University of Vienna.
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