Recent trends in late child-bearing
Leridon, H.
Contraception Fertilite Sexualite 15(3): 271-274
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0301-861X PMID: 12341478 Document Number: 294622
The number of births to mothers aged 35 and over has been increasing in France since 1988, following an earlier period of decline. The number of births to mothers aged 35-39 in 1978 was 37% of the number observed in 1964. By 1984 the proportion had risen to 60%. On the other hand, births to mothers aged 40-44 declined in 1979 to 28% of the number in 1964 and increased only slightly to 29% in 1984. The recent increase has not compensated the earlier decline. Legitimate births of order 2 or higher accounted for about 2/3 of the 54,300 births to mothers aged 35-39 in 1984. Legitimate 1st births accounted for less than 20% of the total. Extramarital births have been increasing; their number tripled in 10 years and now almost equals that of legitimate 1st births for women aged 35-39. Among the 8280 births to women aged 40-44 in 1984, only the proportion illegitimate has increased since 1975. The increased number of births to women over 35 since 1977 is explained largely by the increasing number of women in the relevant age cohorts. If the observed number of births is related to the number of women in the 2 age groups, it becomes clear that recent changes in their rate of fertility are much more limited than the changes in absolute number of births. Only extramarital fertility in the 35-39 cohort is increasing significantly, but it has merely regained a level already attained in 1966 or 1973. Extramarital fertility is increasing among younger women as well as among those over 35. Births after age 35 are still rare; 8% in 1984 were to mothers over 35 and only 1% were to mothers over 40. At least 1/2 of pregnancies in women over 40 and 1/3 in women over 45 are terminated by abortion. In 1973-77, about half of pregnancies in women over 40 were unplanned, but it appears reasonable that a greater number of late pregnancies occurring at present are desired. Development of contraception and liberalization of abortion laws have undoubtedly caused a decline in unplanned births to older women.