The benefits of being an older mother

Latest studies claim delayed childbearing may be better for women than young motherhood

Everyone says having children while you’re younger is better. They’re healthier, you’re healthier, so on and so forth.

According to Motto, however, a growing body of work is suggesting that while the dangers of delayed childbearing are real, its benefits are also compelling.

The latest finding comes from a study of 4,741 mothers and children in Denmark, published in The European Journal of Developmental Psychology. The study tracked the subjects longitudinally, checking in when the kids were 7, 11 and then 15. It was noted that older moms generally resorted to verbal and physical punishment less.

The children of older mothers also had fewer behavioural, social and emotional problems than those with young mothers, at least at the 7- and 11-year marks. The study controlled for factors like income and education and attributed the results mostly to greater patience and steadiness that people acquire as they age.

There are a few more reasons not to sweat later-life parenting. According to a 2016 study of 28,000 US women, those who had their first child after 25 are 11% likelier to live to 90 than those who were young mothers. A 2014 study found that those who gave birth after 33 were 50% likelier to live to 95 too.



Also, there is evidence that children who are born later in the mother’s life are taller and smarter, according to a 2016 study in Population and Development Review. The investigators surveyed 1.5 million men and women in Sweden and found that those born to older mothers were more physically fit, had better grades and at least a small height advantage over people born to younger mothers.

In fact, even current trends are on older mothers’ side. In the US, maternal age at the time of first birth has risen from 25 to 26, since the year 2000. In Sweden, 25% of births are now to women 35 and older. In Denmark, the share of children born to women over 40 has quadrupled since 1985. The developed world is well ahead of the developing one and access to fertility treatments and mother-and-baby care is highly determined by geography. But where the care is good, older parenting becomes less dangerous.

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