My “Geriatric” Pregnancy Experience

If you type “geriatric pregnancy” into Google it’ll tell you that it’s an outdated term referring to a pregnant woman aged 35 and older. Outdated, it says. Really? Then why is that word still thrown around? These days the term should be Advanced Maternal Age (AMA) according to Google. When I had my daughter last year at age 36, I felt far from “geriatric” or “advanced”. Instead, what I experienced was the necessary care I needed, according to my personal situation, and a lot of discussion over what might happen in my geriatric pregnancy.

Getting a new patient meeting with an OB-GYN was hard enough without being pregnant. As soon as my health insurance came in, I looked up a practice that was within my insurance specifications and made a call. An appointment more than half a year away was the soonest new patient appointment I could get. But thankfully, I got pregnant first, so they had to see me.

As I wasn’t a young mom-to-be, I was advised to eat well and exercise. Nothing out of the ordinary there. My physical health and family history didn’t indicate any cause for concern either. No morning sickness, lucky me! No real food aversions or weird cravings.

Throughout my pregnancy, they kept checking in on my blood pressure and asking me about any swelling. Nope. No pre-eclampsia at any point throughout my pregnancy, but they kept checking. The worst I could say I had experienced was regular heartburn (and the old wives’ tale about Bub having a full head of hair was true for me!). And my Charley horse leg cramps, three in a row, ouch! But still, nothing that particularly set me apart from any other (younger) pregnancy.

Several superstitions and speculations come with being a “geriatric” mother, let’s have a look at some of them:

It’s harder to fall pregnant.

I suppose so, but couldn’t this also be true for so many different situations? Luckily enough for us, with using ovulation test strips, it only took 2 months. The second time around, I’m a little older and it’s a little harder so, sure. I can see this being a stressor for so many moms-to-be. On the other hand, many women are choosing to have children later in life than our parents did when they had kids, but they are making it work.

There are more risks involved.

If you are over the age of 35, you are considered high-risk. Ok, sure. Another possibility. But again, couldn’t this be true for so many other situations? At the end of my pregnancy at 40+1, I had low fluid and high blood pressure, so they decided to induce me. Baby girl had a high heart rate too. So we stayed in and on the IV for a while, getting the numbers down before they could induce. Fluids at 9am, induced at 7pm, water broke around 2pm, and she was out in about 45 min. My experience didn’t feel particularly risky. I was well cared for at the hospital and they kept checking in on me, making sure I was doing ok. I had a great birthing experience (apart from the epidural having a “window” and me feeling a bit of pain). We had a beautiful healthy baby girl. There wasn’t any real or great risk that couldn’t have happened to a younger mom.

You have fewer viable eggs the older you are.

Yep, we have all heard that one, but many women are working around that by freezing their eggs when they are younger, to be implanted so that they can get pregnant when they are older. Totally possible. Many women also choose to get full health checks before getting pregnant and have a lot of information about their viable egg situation and know how to best move forward.

You are likely to give birth earlier if you are an older mom.

Just an old wives’ tale – maybe? I gave birth at 40+2 but was ready for the eventuality that I might give birth early. As they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so make sure you have that hospital bag ready!

While there may be a bunch more myths and superstitions about geriatric pregnancy and giving birth above the age of 35, if being a mom is really something that you want to do, your age is not gonna stop you, nor should it!