SPAIN IS THE EUROPEAN COUNTRY WHERE MORE WOMEN ARE MOTHERS FOR THE FIRST TIME AT AGE 40

8.8% of Spanish women are 40 years old or older when they have their first child. It is one of the data from the latest Eurostat statistic on the age of mothers in Europe published yesterday.

According to the European statistical agency, in 2017 (last year for which data are available) we have 'the honor' of being together with Italy, the European country where women are mothers at a later age. A worrying fact, given the risks that a pregnancy may imply after 40. Why is this delay due to conceiving?

The age of mothers in Europe

The previous Eurostat statistic of 2015 placed Italy leading the ranking of the 27 European countries where women expected more to get pregnant. But the most recent, with data from 2017, indicates that the percentage of mothers in Spain over 40 has increased more than in the rest.

We are followed by Italy, with 8.6% of late mothers, yes, Greece (6.6%) or Luxembourg and Ireland (5.9%).

In Babies and more With 20 years, the chance of conceiving is 25 percent; with 40 years it is reduced to five percent

This first position confirms a historical tendency to progressively delay first maternity: in 1975 the average age at which Spanish women had their first child was 25 years; In 2018, 31 years old.

The number of Spanish firstborn babies of mothers over 40 has increased 60% in the last 10 years

As to First maternity hospitals over 50 years, Italy and Spain are also leaders in that order, far from 92% who, according to the European agency, has their first child between the ages of 20 and 39.

The youngest mothers in Europe

According to Euroestat, the EU countries where women do not wait at a late age to have children are, by order: Latvia (only 1.8% is a mother for the first time at 40), Slovakia (1.5%) , Poland (1.4%) and Lithuania (1.3%).

The 2017 data also indicate that the community countries that have younger mothers (below 20 years) are Bulgaria and Romania, with more than 12% of the total. They are followed by Hungary, with 8.5% and Slovakia, with 8.1%.

These figures remain well above the European average, which stands at 3.7%.

In Spain, teenage pregnancies do not seem to pose a problem, if we consider that according to this survey Only 2.8% of women in our country have their first child before their 20th birthday.

Cultural and economic reasons

According to the latest fertility survey of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), with data from 2018, young Spaniards do want to have children, although each time they have them later.

The economic reasons (as the graph shows) seem to be behind surprising data: 88.1% of Spanish women between 18 and 30 do not have children, an average that rises to 95.1 percent in case of men who still have no offspring at age 30.

In Babies and more, almost 90 percent of Spanish women under 30 are not yet mothers: these are the reasons

Others prefer to wait at a much older age than their mothers, because of a cultural change that prioritizes economic and labor stability over an age where there is a greater chance of pregnancy and without risks.

These are conclusions drawn from the INE survey: 36% of women over 35 claimed a sum of labor reasons, of reconciliation of family and work life and economic as an explanation to delay maternity.

A survey conducted by the Spanish Federation of Large Families to know the reasons why Spanish families do not have more children, also indicated the difficult reconciliation between work and home as the main cause, well above work instability and job insecurity.

And it is not surprising, if as 67.1% of Spanish families assure, motherhood penalizes women in matters of conciliation.

So, although every woman has particular circumstances to delay her motherhood, it seems that money is not always the main reason.

Unfortunately, the chances of achieving a natural pregnancy decrease as they turn years, which explains that more and more women opt for assisted reproduction techniques to become mothers, after achieving their work goals.