Delaying Conception: What Are The Risks?

I'm 27, on the fast track in my career, and getting married next month. I want to start a family, but not now - later. How long can I safely wait?

Women are living longer these days, more are choosing careers over baby-raising in their younger years. More and more women are having healthy babies in their late thirties and even forties. Here are some figures: between 1990 and 1997, birth rates for women in their 30s rose 9.65%. For the same period, birth rates for women in their 40s rose a staggering 29%.

And there are good reasons: the mother is likely to be in a better financial position in her 40s than in her 20s; she may have learned patience and is likely to enjoy children more and have a more relaxed attitude concerning them. Also, women are putting off childbearing until later because they are marrying later in life, after they complete their education, or because they want to travel the world or get out of a bad marriage. All these experiences make for a wiser woman with a rich storehouse of experience to assist them in motherhood.

If I decide to wait, what is the downside?

Women have been told again and again that they can have it all: education, a career, and after that, children. But that rosy dream doesn't always come true; women may struggle through their 20s and 30s - working at low-paying jobs - to get their education, with the result that they're in their early 40s before their career really starts. It then becomes a choice: children or a career.

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Diane Brown spent her 20s and 30s stuck in a bad relationship while studying for a master's and doctorate degree in psychology. She was 35 when she found a man she wanted to marry, and did so, two years later. Shortly thereafter, they decided to start their family. But nothing happened. "We tried for six months," Brown said. "By then I was 38. Luckily, I had a doctor who understood. I said, `When should I start worrying?' He said, `Now.' "