Late Pregnancy Can Lead To Birth Defects
With the standard norms of life having changed over the past decades, more and more women today think about childbearing only once they have well established themselves in their professional career.
That means most of the women think about conceiving only after crossing the thirties mark, which is still fair enough when compared with some of the other women who think about conceiving only after crossing 35. But that’s where these women need to understand, that conceiving after 35 years of age can surge the risk of birth defects.
There is a long list of birth defects that could affect your child, when you’re trying to conceive after the age of 35, but here in-specific we would like to draw your attention to one of the more common birth defects which is Down syndrome.
Down syndrome
In the simplest language you can understand Down syndrome as a birth defect which results from the presence of an additional chromosome in the genetic structure of the children and that this additional chromosome may affect your child mentally as well as physically.
The child may be mentally retarded or may face some peculiar physical problems. There are many medical tests available which can help in determining this particular genetic disorder, which can be conducted while you are still pregnant. Two of the commonly used tests are chorionic villi sampling and amniocentesis.
Although, we have talked about the Down syndrome as being one of the more frequent birth defects related to pregnancies beyond the age of 35, please remember that it doesn’t occur in each and every case. This problem has been observed in nearly 8 to 10% women only, so there is no need for you to panic unnecessarily about birth defect risks, if you are planning to conceive of the age of 35.
Rather than being stressed and worried about the possible birth defects and other pregnancy related problems, you will do good to yourself and your baby by observing absolute health care during pregnancy. When you conceive after the age of 35 you must remain extra cautious about your diet, your exercise routine and your medical check ups, so as to ensure minimum problems during and after childbirth.
