BACKGROUND<\/p>\n
It is increasingly common for women in high-income countries to delay childbearing. We aimed to describe the context of pregnancy for first-time mothers of different ages and examine relationships among maternal age at first birth, mode of conception and psychosocial wellbeing in pregnancy.<\/p>\n
METHODS<\/p>\n
Using stratified sampling, we recruited similar numbers of women conceiving through assisted reproductive technology (ART; n<\/I> = 297) or spontaneously (n<\/I> = 295) across three age groups: younger, ≤20–30 years; middle, 31–36 years; older, ≥37 years. Women participated in a structured interview and completed validated questionnaires assessing socio-economic status, personality, quality of partner relationship, state and trait anxiety, pregnancy-focused (P-F) anxiety and maternal–fetal attachment.<\/p>\n
RESULTS<\/p>\n
Older maternal age was associated with lower depression and anxiety symptoms, lower maternal–fetal attachment (P<\/I>< 0.05), greater psychological hardiness (resilience) (P<\/I>< 0.001) and lower ratings of control in the partner relationship (P<\/I>< 0.05) at a univariate level. ART conception, but not older maternal age, was associated with more P-F anxiety. Although most main effects of age and mode of conception became non-significant after controlling for contextual\/reproductive history variables, a significant association between ART conception and more intense fetal attachment emerged (P<\/I>< 0.05).<\/p>\n
CONCLUSIONS<\/p>\n
Women having their first baby when older appear to have some psychological advantages over their younger counterparts; they are more resilient, report their partners as less controlling and report lower symptoms of depression and anxiety during pregnancy. However, women conceiving through ART have a more complex experience of pregnancy, simultaneously experiencing more P-F anxiety and more intense emotional attachment to the fetus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BACKGROUND It is increasingly common for women in high-income countries to delay childbearing. We aimed to describe the context of pregnancy for first-time mothers of different ages and examine relationships among maternal age at first birth, mode of conception and … Continue reading