We have stated this time and again that irrespective of age, nationality and any other factor, pregnancy remains as the most life-changing and exhilarating experiences of a woman’s life as well as her partner’s life. Women undergo massive physical changes and go through various emotional phases both during pregnancy and while raising her child. Men, on the other hand go through emotional phases while dealing with their partner’s pregnancy and then jointly raising the child. Lets find out the best age to get pregnant.

Welcoming the news of being pregnant is a treasured moment for all. It brings in a lot of joy but it is also one of the biggest responsibilities that you will shoulder during a lifetime. Therefore, you need to be 100% sure before you embark on this difficult but interesting journey called motherhood.

Today, a woman has multiple priorities. You would definitely want to have a settled career and a committed partner before you think of embracing motherhood. So let us help you understand the pros and cons of pregnancy at different ages, so that you can have a considerable amount of clarity of thought for yourself.

Best Age To Get Pregnant: Things You Must Know

In order to understand which age is the best age to get pregnant, it is important to know how pregnancy functions during different age groups:

Pregnancy in 20s

These are your most fertile years. Your periods are probably regular and most, if not all, of them are ovulatory. Even now, however, you may not conceive exactly when you want to. The average woman between 20 and 24 years old has about a 20 percent chance each month of getting pregnant when she has unprotected intercourse. Once you do conceive, your blood pressure will probably be checked at each prenatal appointment, even though most women in their 20s have only a small risk of hypertension during pregnancy.

The miscarriage rate during these years is about 9.5 percent, the lowest it will ever be. Because your eggs are still relatively young, your baby is much less likely to be born with a birth defect such as down syndrome (1 in 1,667 births among women age 20) or other chromosomal abnormalities (1 in 526 among women age 20). Yet more infants with these disorders are born to women in their 20s because those in this age group have more babies and women past 35 are more likely to be offered screening tests and may elect to terminate a pregnancy in which the fetus has a birth defect.

So, if you are in your 20s and want to get pregnant, make sure you are as careful as older women are, because even if your age gives you an advantage, you should still remember that no one is ever 100% safe from any kind of medical complication.

Pregnancy in 30s

Fertility begins to decline at age 30, but this change happens gradually, over the next five years or so. If you need infertility treatment, your chances of success are higher than they are for an older woman. For women under age 35 the success rate of in vitro fertilization (ivf), for example, is 25 to 28 percent and for those over age 40, that rate drops to 6 to 8 percent. The miscarriage rate is 11.7 percent. By age 30 your risk of having a baby with down syndrome is 1 in 952, and a baby with any chromosomal abnormality, 1 in 385. Fertility continues to decline after age 35.

Up until age 35, most doctors suggest that couples have unprotected intercourse for a full year before seeking infertility treatment; that time period is reduced to six months for women over 35. The risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy is about double for women over 35 compared with younger ones; hypertension affects about 10 to 20 percent of pregnant women in this age group. Gestational diabetes is two to three times more common in women over age 35 than in younger women and recent studies show the risk is even higher if the woman has gained weight over the years.

If you are a woman in your 30s, keep all these factors in mind before proceeding with the idea of getting pregnant.

Pregnancy in 40s

First the good news: a recent study shows that women over 40 who have babies without help from fertility drugs or other assisted reproductive technologies tend to live longer than those who don’t. Why? One theory is that estrogen, which is still produced in abundance in fertile women, has life-lengthening effects on the heart, bones, and other organs. However, less than 1 percent of women ages 40 to 44 have babies. The chance of becoming pregnant during any one month drops to only 5 percent after age 40.

How well you carry and deliver a baby in your 40s depends on several factors, including your level of fitness, overall health habits, and whether this is your first baby. Hormonal changes in pregnancy make all women feel tired, but fatigue seems to be more pronounced in older ones and can be compounded if there are young children to care for.”

If you’ve already had a baby, you may also be more prone to hemorrhoids, pressure on the bladder, prolapsed tissues in the uterus and vagina, and sagging breasts than you would have been 20 years earlier, simply because the muscles and other tissues in these areas have already been stretched. You can minimize these effects by making sure not to gain an excessive amount of weight during pregnancy, keeping moderately active, and doing kegel exercises to keep your vaginal muscles strong.

So what is the best age to get pregnant?

We explained pregnancy during different age groups. Keeping in mind the physical factors, the best age to get pregnant is between the ages of 20 to 30. Your body suffers from less damage and you have a greater chance of delivering a healthy baby. However, let no one dictate you and tell you when you should get pregnant, by citing only the physical factors as reasons.

Raising a child demands a certain level of emotional and financial investment. So, we would say that the best age to get pregnant is the age when you feel you are ready to give birth and raise a child with/without your partner. Our job is to make you aware of the pros and cons of pregnancy. The rest depends entirely on you.