If you're in your mid to late twenties, you might feel like every month another engagement pic ('#Isaidyes!') springs up on Facebook, a stress-inducing annoyance if, a) you're single, or b) you have been with your 'significant other' for eight years and there's not even been talk of marriage. When the baby pictures start rolling into sight though there's a whole new level of panic. Despite many of us being aware that our parents had ticked off both home-ownership and babies by the time they were 'our age', Millenials have different expectations - whether the priority is packing in the life experience (travelling, studying and so on) or focusing on our careers.
Figures revealed last year showed that more over-40s were having babies than under-20s. The BBC reported that the Office for National Statistics data divulged that there were 15.2 births per 1,000 women aged over 40, compared with only 14.5 per 1,000 women in their teens (the last time a higher birthrate in over-40s has been seen was post WWII, in 1947).
Now, according to ONS data, the average age first-time mothers in England and Wales have babies is 28.6 - this is according to statistics from 2015, which are the most recent to date. In 2014 the average age was slightly younger, at 28.5, which does suggest that women will likely leave it later and later to have kids, as the years go by.
Men are also leaving it later to have children, with the average age of fathers to babies born in 2015 recorded to be 33.2. While it seems like advice about not 'leaving it too late' has historically been mainly addressed at women, The Guardian reported only months ago about the impact of time on mens fertility.
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