The number of women having babies in their forties has doubled in the past 10 years.
A combination of pursuing a career, taking longer to find a “life partner” and saving for a house is causing hundreds of thousands of women to delay starting a family.
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Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 13,200 women over 40 became pregnant in 1995, accounting for 1.7 per cent of all pregnancies. In 2005 that figure rose to 23,600 – 3 per cent of all pregnancies.
The same figures show that 8,200 women over 40 went on to have a baby in 1995; by 2005, that had risen to 15,900. However, abortions also rose. Around 7,700 women over 40 had an abortion, up 2,700 since 1995.
