May 20, 2014

DENVER – A new baby can have any mom feeling older than she really is. Between a non-existent sleep schedule and carrying around a growing infant nonstop, early motherhood can take its toll.

HIGH-RISK PREGNANCY: Becky Ditchfield’s story

A new government study, though, is now suggesting the average moms are older. Since the year 2000, the number of women having their first baby after age 35 has jumped 24 percent. For women over 40 years old, that number is 35 percent.

Doctors say the older a mother is, the higher risk her pregnancy becomes.

Dr. Debra Minjarez is an infertility specialist and board-certified reproductive endocrinologist at the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine. She assists patients of all types, including ones like Sandra Bruno-Meyappan, who looked to start a family later in life.

Bruno-Meyappan is 42 years old and recently gave birth to twins in May.

Dr. Minjarez and Bruno-Meyappan sat down with 9NEWS to discuss high-risk pregnancies, specifically related to age. The topics they discussed included why women are choosing to wait until later in life to get pregnant, being pregnant at a later age and the different risks that increase for both mom and baby that come with being pregnant at an advanced maternal age.

Taylor Temby

9 News