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Ellen Pompeo — aka Dr. Meredith Grey — looked positively radiant this weekend as she showed off her brand new baby bump while shopping with a friend in WeHo.
Ellen’s put on a teensy tiny bit of baby weight, and I have to say I think she looks way better for it. Ellen’s taking on her first pregnancy at the age of 39, and I love her for it.
Listen: I had a very reputable psychic (your screeds go in the comments) tell me that I wouldn’t meet the man I was to marry until around this time in 2011. I will be 29 by then. I figure we date a bit and then tie the knot around the time I’m 31 or 32. The psychic said we would have 2 or 3 children, and I would have them between the ages of 35-40. Now, I’ve got no problem with adopting — I like my vagina just the way it, thank you very much — but I do want to have at least one or two kids that pass on my genetic content to ensure that my obituary will be properly copy-edited. My late 30s seems like a rough time to be harvesting biochildren. But seeing how happy and healthy and radiant Ellen looks in these pictures makes me think that perhaps it’s not so bad. I lost hope for Meredith Grey a really long time ago, but her alter-ego is giving me renewed hope for myself.
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Having a baby at 39 is so risky for the baby, I would not recommend it.
dang, it’s not THAT risky
my sister was born to my mum at 39 and she’s a tank, hard out athlete, and she’s only 8 :P
It is, in fact. For Down’s Syndrome alone, the odds go from about 1:1250 for a woman aged 25 to 1:100 for a woman aged 40. Roughly 10% of pregnancies miscarry for women aged about 20–for women aged about 40, this may rise to around 50%.
http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1155.asp
yeah, I know, I looked up a bunch of stuff too. Although initially, it’s like, that looks like a huge difference. Then I remind myself what kind of number 1% is. If I thought I had a 1% chance of having a child with Downs, I don’t think I would care.
And for miscarriage? If you are 20, you have a 10% chance already… 20 is not that insanely different. If people feared miscarriage that much, no one would ever get pregnant. I actually know a 20 year-old healthy girl that JUST had one (like last week). I know plenty of healthy women that have had multiple miscarriages throughout their lives. Although I am sure they are heart-breaking, they are fairly common.
When you decide to get pregnant, you are always taking a chance. The risks might be higher as you age, according to current information, but I would not say that it was “so risky for the baby” that I personally would not recommend it.
I’d rather have some 39 year-old giving birth than a ton of teenage crackheads.
oh literally just found out today that some other girl I know that is pregnant (she is 21 or 22) just found out that her baby is most likely going to be born with downs. So… it happens to people of all ages.
My sis is 37 and just pregnant with her first child. Medicine is so far by now, they know what to do and how to support mums in that age. It doesn’t have to be risky. Anyways, I’m sure the kids that are born to more mature mums will have the advantage of a very stable environment when they grow up. These mums probably know much better, where they are in life and what they want, than some 25-year-olds (I know, there are tonnes of very responsible 25-year-olds out there, too…but it’s just a thought).
Certainly that is true in some cases, but you still have your best odds of having physically healthy offspring in your late ‘teens and early twenties.
I just had my first baby @ 40. With medical practice being what it is now, your odds of having a healthy baby after 35 are VERY increased from years ago. Yes, your odds of Downs do go up, but my doctor quoted me much better statistics than what was linked above. You are better established in your career, you are much calmer, you likely have better health insurance, and are more likely to be eating healthy when you are a little older. SO many more more benefits! I think you are less stressed about the little things, so you don;t feed that stress to the baby, and end up with a happier little one too. Yes it is probably better for your body to have a baby in your late teens, but what about the child being raised by a mom who is only in her late teens?
Victor is happy, healthy and turned 3 months old today. Pregnancy does suck though – don’t let anyone tell you different! It is completely worth it in the end.
I wouldn’t worry too much about passing down the editing genes.
That’s something that probably falls under the “nurture” vs the “nature” category anyway…
My wedding is set for July 4th 2011, I’ll be 20 then, and I want to start babies at 21. I just prefer to have a younger family than one later on though.
Sweetie, I wish you all the best of luck, but if you’re 17 or 18 right now and your wedding is planned for 2 years from now, remember that a LOT can change in that time, especially when you’re young. I was a completely different person with completely different plans at 20 than I was at 18.
Yea I’ve heard it all before. It’s just ‘different strokes for different folks’ I guess. I have no desire to ever be with more than one man, and I’m not the dating around type. I feel like when you’ve found the person that you are supposed to be with, you know. Whether you’re 18 or 27, you’ll know. It’s funny because people who know us in person have no issue with it and are happy about it, in fact they weren’t remotely surprised. People online though think it’s like a huge deal and give disclaimers trying to talk me out of it. I mean, we’ve obviously thought a lot about this and decided it’s what we wanted, engagement isn’t something to be taken lightly. I’m absolutely sure I will be a different person at 20 than I am at 18, it would be ridiculous if I wasn’t, but the idea is that you grow with your partner. The problems occur when one person decides that they aren’t ready to grow up and the other is.
I guess if you want a career it’s ideal for you to wait, but I don’t want one. I’m finishing college (for fine arts) and then maybe I’ll have a studio but that’s it.
yeah, that’s what my sister thought too. Then she got divorced before she was like 25. I agree with Sasha. I was different at 20 than 18, and I am completely different at 25 than 18. For sure.
I really hope you have better luck than my sister (and everyone else that I know that got married young… out of like 10 couples, I know one that is still together.. but they got married a year ago). Don’t be surprised if most people are skeptical. People who marry young have such high rates of divorce.
according to me googling for a minute: the divorce rate for those who marry in their early 20s is double the divorce rate for those who marry in their mid-20s.
But, of course, there’s exceptions to everything. So good luck.
I prefer to be the exception and not the rule. Everybody has stories about their sister or their friend or their sister’s friend, it’s just different for everyone. Statistics are a random sampling of a population, I’m four times more likely than you are to die in a car accident tomorrow. That doesn’t mean I will. =]
P.S. I’m not surprised by the skepticism either, it’s just ironic that it only comes from people who don’t know me personally (and trust me the people who know me would most definitely voice their concerns… i don’t think they know how to shut up). But I’ll let you guys chalk it up to me being a stubborn internet kid who’s got to learn her lesson XD I’ll just take the good luck and run with it, It’s hard being an optimist around realists.
well, I only have these stories of mine because I am 25, so I am guessing I know more couples who married young and then got divorced than you do. When I was 18, I was not close friends with anyone married. And you may see young couples get married, be all happy, and then totally fall apart in several years.
I dunno. Do people in your family/town/school etc tend to get married young? That could be a reason why they are less skeptical. Or maybe they just know you really well and trust your feelings.
I know I don’t know you. And it is nothing personal. I would try to convince ANY TEENAGER EVER to not get married so young. It has nothing to do with anything that you have said.
If one of my cousins did this, I would be 100x more vocal and bitchy.
Aw shit I think I used to be an optimist too when I was your age. I can barely remember it. Must be nice.
Just fell over this: “Women giving birth at advanced reproductive ages in natural fertility conditions have been shown to have superior postmenopausal longevity.”
Source:
http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/glp055v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Ken+Smith+&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
i was my mom’s first child, and she had me when she was 39. my sister was born when she was 41 and my brother when she was 43. she’s still a knockout, still in fantastic shape – much better shape than me – and none of us could ever have asked for a better mother. don’t freak, sasha! everything’ll happen when you make it happen, when it’s meant to.
hey, and celebs these days seem to be having babies older, i guess cause they’re first getting the hot career thing together when they’re in their 20s and early 30s. so really, just consider it evil beet research into hollywood reproductive trends.