According to a study presented last month at the American Sociological Association meeting in San Francisco, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

John Mirowsky, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin, and colleagues studied 2,215 women over several decades to determine long-term health problems and risk of death based on when they began childbearing.

The researchers questioned the women about chronic health problems or other conditions and gave them a risk of death score and an overall health score based on their responses. The researchers also examined the death certificates of women and reviewed previous national studies. The researchers also reviewed medical literature on birth defects and infant mortality.

They found that there were fewer birth defects and infant deaths among the offspring of women who were between ages 26 and 32 when they delivered. Although women are more fertile and have fewer pregnancy complications around age 20 than later in life, Mirowsky said that the risks of birth defects and infant mortality "drop steadily the longer that first birth was delayed, up to about age 34, then rise increasingly and steeply, particularly after about age 40."

Mirowsky said he did not determine exactly how many more years a woman who delivered later in life would live than a woman who began childbearing earlier, but he said that "delaying [childbearing] until you are 30 is like being eight to 10 years younger in terms of your risk of death compared to starting when a teenager."

Explanation, Ramifications

Mirowsky said that women in their late 20s and early 30s are more likely to be financially and emotionally stable, are less likely to engage in risky behavior and tend to have a more formal education than younger women.

The findings could reassure "education-oriented, career-minded or late-marrying women who agonize over the frenzied ticking of their biological clocks as they enter their 30s," the American-Statesman reports. "Those women -- and I see a lot of them in the classroom -- they're really concerned about when it's best to start a family,"

Mirowsky said, adding, "I hope this will be just one piece of information they can use in making decisions about their own lives." Mirowsky said he believes that the study, which was funded with grants from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Mental Health, is the first to study a woman's risk of dying based on when she begins childbearing.

Reaction

Dr. Sharon Phelan, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of New Mexico, said that the research makes "good sense" but added that she does not completely agree with the findings. Phelan said that there is no evidence that a woman who delays childbearing until later in life would be healthier than a woman who gives birth at a younger age just because of age.

Phelan said that even though the researchers determined that the amount of formal education a woman had did not influence the findings, other socioeconomic factors likely played a role. "The kinds of things that would cause a woman to voluntarily delay her childbearing -- education, career -- are also going to be the same things that are going to cause her to lead a healthier lifestyle," including obtaining adequate prenatal care, Phelan said.

She added that it does not matter if a woman gives birth in her late 20s or her early 20s if she is poor, overweight, lacks access to health care, smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol during pregnancy, according to the American-Statesman (Roser, Austin American-Statesman, 9/6).

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