Complete Guide to Pregnancy after 30: From Conception to Delivery: All You Need to Know to Make the Right Decisions

FROM THE PUBLISHER

I wrote this book to bring women the good news: that healthy women are neither too old nor too high risk to have babies in their 30￯﾿ﾽs and 40￯﾿ﾽs and even 50￯﾿ﾽs. I also wrote the book to help women gain a realistic￯﾿ﾽand often reassuring￯﾿ﾽperspective on pregnancy and childbirth; to bolster women￯﾿ﾽs confidence in themselves and their capacity to give birth; to honor the idea that childbirth is a natural, normal event for which women￯﾿ﾽs bodies are well designed (even if they are over 30); and to acknowledge that the contributions of midwifery and modern medicine are sometimes necessary in helping nature along.

In my book, I bring together￯﾿ﾽunder one cover￯﾿ﾽthe combined wisdom of doctors, midwives, doulas (pregnancy support women), childbirth educators, and mid-life mothers. By offering women a broad spectrum of information about fertility, pregnancy, and birth, I hope that my book will help them make fully informed choices. The ￯﾿ﾽvoices￯﾿ﾽ of both mothers and experts are heard throughout the book, offering women useful strategies for coping with getting pregnant, staying healthy, giving birth, and balancing motherhood, relationships, and career.

I realize that becoming a midlife mother is not always easy, and many of the women I interviewed had faced obstacles imposed by their own bodies, by medical myths, or by discouraging medical and social attitudes. Some women had been frightened out of all proportion by age-related fertility statistics, Down￯﾿ﾽs syndrome, and possible pregnancy complications. Some felt frustrated as they tried to find an emotionally satisfying way of giving birth within a high-tech and sometimes impersonal medical system.

I found that a surprising number of women felt perplexed by the maze of medical opinion and options. Their struggle to inform themselves about such things as childbirth classes, healthcare providers, hospitals, birth centers, birthing options, pain management, breech babies, and twins; to make good choices for themselves and their babies; and to navigate a complex medical system consumed considerable time and energy.

Consequently, I decided to write a book that they could use as a resource and ￯﾿ﾽpregnancy companion￯﾿ﾽ --- an up-to-date, in-depth, comprehensive guide tailored to the health and lifestyle concerns of women from age 30-something to 50-something. Although the book is tailored to the needs and concerns of mid-life mothers, it also addresses issues important to women in their late twenties or early thirties who are looking ahead and thinking about when to have a baby and how to integrate motherhood with career and a full, busy life.

In The Complete Guide to Pregnancy After 30, my consultants are nationally known authorities in obstetrics, midwifery, assisted reproduction, and childbirth preparation. My main ￯﾿ﾽcharacters￯﾿ﾽ are the women I interviewed and their partners. The majority of these women were between the ages of thirty-three and forty-seven when they had their first or second baby. Most had postponed childbearing for one or more of the following reasons: to pursue education and career, establish financial security, or find the right partner. A few, finding themselves with a stable career but no partner, decided to have babies on their own.

What impressed me as I talked to these midlife parents was the resourcefulness and humor they brought to pregnancy, birth, and parenthood. My hope is that their stories will offer you a helpful perspective and provide you with strategies that you can use to make good choices, find appropriate health care, and integrate pregnancy and motherhood with the other aspects of your life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Winkelman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning medical writer, has written a comprehensive guide to pregnancy aimed at older mothers. She includes information on infertility treatment and drugs, multiple births, genetic testing and age-related complications. Winkelman also explores the use of midwives, nonhospital deliveries and other "natural" therapies advocating such treatments when possible, but recognizing that midlife pregnancies may require high-tech medical interventions. Especially helpful are checklists that readers can use when consulting their doctors. For example, she provides a list of symptoms that can indicate preeclampsia, a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that can develop during pregnancy. The discussions of medical history and preparation for a fertility workup are also useful. Winkelman's fundamental philosophy is that most older mothers need not be stuck with anxiety-provoking "high risk" labels simply because of their age, nor should older women automatically assume that it's too late to have children. Throughout the book, the author uses quotations and anecdotes from a panel of older mothers, doctors and midwives. Some readers will find these perspectives reassuring, while those using the book as a quick medical reference may feel they're distracting. In any case, the breadth of material covered here should make this book appealing to women looking for a single-volume resource on midlife pregnancy. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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