A famous obstetrician has warned that the rising numbers of "middle age pregnancy" cases are as big a public health problem as "teenage pregnancy" cases.
More than one in five babies are born to mothers over the age of 35 and it is causing a huge damage to NHS resources. This is according to a report by Dr Susan Bewley, a consultant at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London. She said that ministers had to agree that the number of middle age pregnancy cases was an important health issue.
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"Middle-age pregnancy is a public health problem because women en masse are moving out of the optimal age of childbearing and that brings preventable disease and stress with it," she argues in a paper to be published later this year in the Fetal and Maternal Medicine Review.
"Middle-age pregnancy has complications in the same way as teenage pregnancy," she said. "We have policies to address teenage pregnancy, but not middle-age pregnancy."
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