European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Y / Quot w is fluent Nintendo at 50 latecomers to motherhood Olivia 15 months old is the daughter of first time Mother Tina Walton Virta 43. By Nancy Shulins associated press Pat Packer met Ross by ams when she was 38 and Mamed h m three years later even As they Sard Herr vows the Bride could hear her a olog Ca clock ticking As Scon As i left the altar i knew it was time to Start May ing a cd new -i7 Packer Vii Iiams. A graphic designer in v. Re roster mass is the Mother of 4-year-old Gavin and 17-rv.entr old Colm. A situation that confounds financial planners in the United states they re used to helping people pm an for either retirement or College Tuton you never hear about plans for people with to the financial panners take note p2cker-Wiliiams represents a san but growing group of american women who Are pushing nature s Enve Cape. Delaying motherhood until after  40th birthday s those women Aren t pioneers though the Cwer-40 phenomenon n the United states is undergoing a reviva1 what s new is a More optimistic Outlook for late to life pregnancies the result of encouraging research a study in the new England journal of Medicine in March showed no evidence that advanced age reduces a healthy woman s chances of delivering a healthy baby the mount Sinai school of Medicine researchers cautioned that  findings May not apply to women Over 40, too Small a group to yield reliable data but an accompanying editorial called the message Clear and optimistic the Bol Tom line of the papers is that people today Are m much better shape and Thal changes the whole concept of being pregnant Quot says or Manuel a Arez. Assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology a mount Smai role models abound actresses Bette Midler Glenn close. Ursula Andress. Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Seymour ail gave birth to healthy first babies after 40 Patti Lupone 41-year-old Star of the Abc series life Coes on. Is expecting her first child in november and lbs recently announced it would scale Back face to face with conme Chung this a i to accommodate the 44-year-old new woman s efforts to have a baby after consulting with my doctors. I became  that to make this Effort i new need to take a very Augress be approach to hav my a baby she a d m a statement should she succeed. Chung w a p n a my sorority first births to women Over 40 accounted for just 6,939 of tre 3 9 motion babes pern m America during 1983 they have much in common those predominantly  add dec ass. College educated Urban professional they often marry later if at All  off family for career and As a result  them Senes tvs Connie hoping to be Between aging parents and Young children. Years of dieting and aerobics have paid off. Quot i think of myself As  says Tina Walton Virta 43, Mother of 15-month-o d Olivia. But like most older mothers she is Ever mindful of the realities. Quot its very sad when i think about not being Able to participate in her life for As Long As i d  for now the biggest problem is postpartum exhaustion. Quot it s not having a baby at 45, it s having a 2-year-old at 47,&Quot says Polly Ham a teacher and Potter on Lopez Island Wash. Women Over 40 have been having first babies for years in each of the years from 1950 to 1955. More women Over 40 gave birth for the first time than did so during 1987, the census Bureau reports. Between 1970 and 1986, the rate of first births increased by 50 percent for women 40 to 44, a natural progression of the growing numbers of career women Over 35 who began Havig babies More than a decade ago. At 30. My cutoff was 35, at 35, my cutoff was 40. When you really want to have a child you just keep moving the cutoff Point later Quot says Ham. At 45, she gave birth to Laurel. Like Walton Virta and Packer Wiliiams Ham is married to a Man nine years her Junior. Quot it s almost like watching evolution in Progress the Way nature accommodates these lifestyle changes Quot says new York obstetrician Jonathan Scher. First time mothers Over 40 constitute 20 percent of his practice a fivefold increase from a decade ago. That in t to say the next trend will be motherhood after 50. Quot we will reach a biological limit and we Are getting close to  says or. Siegfried Rotmensch a High risk specialist at Yale new Haven Hospital in Connecticut. For the time being the pattern is Apt to continue in a 1989 census Bureau Survey More than half of chd Ess Mamed women 30 to 34 said they still planned to have babes net a i Wei get   one in six of Alt couples is infertile and Fertility decreases with age Rotmensch says. About 90 percent of 25-year-od women not using birth control Wal get pregnant Witron a year. At 40, that figure drops to 30 percent. Today a infertility specialists have More to offer women unable to conceive on  own but the Conception rate among artificially inseminated women also  with age. In Vitro fertilization has proved less successful in older women As Well Mary Eren Conway an Art therapist in a Boston suburb spent two years undergoing infertility treatment before  up i had comp Ete y res Ned myself to not having a , and under the circumstances was adjusting very Well Quot now she s adjusting to 4-Mcnth-old Jacob the baby she inexplicably conceived at 43. After so Many years without Chung a Mother. Or. Seven Swersky checks the Progress of Benjamin Grossman born just five Days earlier to Andrea Auerbach 43. It s her first child. Children parenthood takes considerable getting used to says Steven Shade the 37-year-old artist Conway married nine years ago. Quot the Downside is that we had really developed a certain lifestyle for ourselves a that and the fact i Don t have As much patience As i d  fortunately there a also an upside Quot my son is a Genius Quot he says. Infertility in t the Only reason doctors advise older women not to wait too Leng. The incidence of Downs syndrome 1.5 per thousand among women of 31, jumps to 1 in 350 at age 35, 1 in 1co at age 40 and 1 in 30 at Aga 45. Prenatal testing recommended for All women Ever 35, can no w be done earlier and with less risk to the fetus the most common procedure is amniocentesis in which amniotic fluid is withdrawn by syringe from the uterus cells Are isolated grown in a Laboratory and Analysed to determine the number of chromosomes in the fetus. An extra chromosome 21 indicates Down s syndrome. Once performed 18 weeks into pregnancy amniocentesis can now be done at 13 or 14 weeks. Quot a pregnancy won t show before 20 weeks and the woman won t feel it before 18 to 20 weeks so Early amnio helps avoid a lot of issues Quot says or Steven Swersky a  obstetrician in new York. The new England journal of Medicine editorial stressed that the few pregnancy related problems More common among older women such As High blood pressure or diabetes Quot Are readily manageable in 1990.&Quot in the past such problems May have been overstated Swersky says. Quot risks do go up but in some cases they go from 3 to 3,1. A lot depends on How it s  a lot also depends on who s being studied. The mount Sinai findings were based on private patients who were predominantly White married College educated nonsmokers a precisely the group most Apt to delay childbearing the Good news has yet to find its Way into some doctors offices. Quot in today s medical Legal climate a woman of 39 can go in with a dream and come out feeling like a time bomb that s waiting to go off Quot Swersky says. Quot senior people in the Field still have certain attitudes. Doctors have been bombarded with such negativism for so  attitudes Are changing a but slowly. Kate a 50-year-cd new York writer who asks that her last name not be used wanted natural delivery in a birthing room. Instead like More than 50 percent of pregnant women Over 40, she wound up with a caesarean Section. Such surgery is not always warranted doctors say. Quot you re taught that these Are Premium pregnancies so doctors tend to bail out and Doc sections sooner in these patents Quot says or. John Elliott of Phoenix perinatal associates the nations largest private practice of High risk obstetrics. Quot some physicians Tel women just because they re older that they re fragile and need special handling. That attitude really bothers me. All of a sudden this woman who thought this was the neatest thing in the world has had All the fun taken out of  for some older women the fun is already diluted by anxiety. Quot particularly if she s had problems with infertility or previous miscarriages a woman May have tremendous fear of losing her baby Quot says Patricia Schreiner Engel associate professor of obstetrics gynaecology and reproductive science and psychiatry at mount Sinai. While Many pregnant women worry about losing  Hahn Dpi it nor 4 no 1 a 1 i a. La likelihood they won t get another Chance a a situation that also can create anxious overprotective parents she says. On a brighter note Quot Many older people see themselves As better parents and i think its True. Most of us would make better parents when we re older and have less pressure in our  women who come late to the baby business often find motherhood a great leveler. Quot my Groom no is slipping a there just in t time Quot Packer Williams says. Quot i used to look at mothers and say look at her Why can to she get herself together now i  Walton Virta who lives in Brooklyn n.y., spent her 20s and 30s living abroad and indulging her love of adventures. So far raising Olivia is on a Par with the Best of them she says. A fall the Normal things i associated with being a Mother like Little league paediatricians and station wagons i thought would disgust me. I thought what a Boring Way to live. I was wrong about what happens when you fall in love with a  of course motherhood after 40 is not without Trade offs. An Only child Packer Wii iams finds herself too Busy to pay much attention to her own elderly Mother and father. A i m really caught in the aging Parent baby Sandwich Quot she says. Quot not to mention i d like younger  there s also one s own mortality to consider Quot you do worry. It s a reality and you Don t ignore it Quot says neen Hunt 49, head of the Calhoun school in new York. Hunt the Mother of Evan 10, and Richard 6, lost her own Mother at 50. Quot we be talked about new moms and dads. My kids Are More attuned to that possibility Quot Polly Ham s brother and sister both died Young. Her husband lost his Mother when he was 14. Quot there Are moments when he has concerns about my being older Quot a she says Quot but i have to Trust the Wisdom of the universe that somehow Laurel came into my life at the right time Quot she says her daughter is a great incentive to stay healthy. Classic comedy routines can take on new twists when hard bitten professionals meet or. Spock unexpectedly pregnant at 42, Sally Anderson a College science textbook editor in new York did t worry about Tellag her parents or husband children s Book Illustrator Fred Winkowski. She worried about telling her Boss Quot i had been so devoted to my Job. When i finally broke the news i had tears in my eyes and my upper lip was shaking. Would i be demoted would i lose my window office7 Quot my Boss said How did this happen7 i said 1 done to know and he said a you re a biologist Sally. Of course you  Quot Erik Winkowski who has his Mother s scandinavian cheekbones and straight Silky hair turned 7 in june at an age when most women Are spoiling  children s children Sally remains on the front lines of motherhood a 50-year-old teenage mutant ninja Turtle expert who Speaks fluent Nintendo. Quot he s such a treasure. I think i look at him differently than i would have at 28, but it s so arrogant to say so Quot she says. Quot who am i to say that a 28-year-old would t love her child As much7 occasionally she caught herself doing mental arithmetic. Quot i told a Friend just after Erik was born that when Erik is my age i la be almost 90. There was a Brief pause then we both started laughing Quot Anderson has no regrets. Younger friends who left lower level jobs to have babies found  careers derailed she says. Quot being where i wanted to be in terms of my career has made a big  14 the stars and stripes tuesday sept iber10, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15