What are the potential risks of giving birth at an advanced age to children?
With the social progress and the improvement of people's living standards, more and more women choose to conceive and give birth in their old age. However, we should also pay attention to the potential risks of elderly childbearing to children. This article will elaborate on this issue from four aspects: physical health, genetic diseases, psychological development and relationship with parents.
1、 Physical health risks
1. Increased risk of complications during pregnancy: Older pregnant women are prone to complications such as pregnancy hypertension, pregnancy diabetes, placental insufficiency, etc. due to the gradual decline of their own physiological functions, which may affect the health of the fetus.
2. Maternal and infant mortality rate increased: research shows that the infant mortality rate and premature delivery rate of older pregnant women are significantly higher than those of young pregnant women. As the mother's age increases, the ovarian function decreases, resulting in poor egg quality and prone to chromosomal abnormalities, which is also one of the main reasons for the increase in infant mortality.
3. Increased risk of appearance defects: The elderly birth is related to the baby's birth weight, head circumference and the risk of malformation. The increasing age of pregnant women may increase the probability of congenital malformations such as cleft lip and palate, malignant tumors, etc.
2、 Risk of genetic diseases
1. Increased probability of chromosomal abnormalities: The increase in the age of pregnant women will increase the risk of children suffering from Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities. In addition, the probability of other chromosome abnormalities such as trisomy 21 syndrome and trisomy 18 syndrome increases.
2. Increased risk of genetic diseases: With the increase of age, the risk of some genetic diseases will also increase. If the parents are carriers of hereditary diseases such as familial hypercholesterolemia and muscular dystrophy, the probability of children suffering from them will increase when they give birth at an advanced age.
3. Risk of longevity gene transmission: children of elderly parents may carry longevity gene in their genes, which may have a positive impact on their health. However, there is still a lack of full understanding of longevity genes, which needs further scientific research.
3、 Psychological development risk
1. Mental retardation: children born at an advanced age are at risk of developmental retardation in terms of IQ, language and social skills. This may be due to the differences in health status, educational experience and other aspects of the elderly parents, which lead to certain restrictions on the development of children.
2. Tension in family relations: Older parents may face more pressure in the process of raising children, such as financial burden and physical condition. This may lead to tension in family relations, and the emotional relationship between parents and children is not close enough.
3. Increased sense of isolation: Due to age differences and generation gap, older parents often cannot resonate with younger parents of the same age in their childcare experience. Children may also feel isolated and lack social support due to a certain age gap with their peers.
4、 Risk of relationship with parents
1. Insufficient life expectancy of parents: The life expectancy of older parents is relatively short, which means that children may face the risk of losing their parents at an earlier time. Lack of parental companionship may have an impact on children's psychology and life.
2. Unstable health status: elderly parents may have relatively poor health, and they may face more health problems and medical needs. This may cause children to face more family pressure and responsibilities during their growth.
3. Difficulty in changing parents' roles: Older parents may face greater changes in life and family roles. They may need to take care of their elderly health problems while raising children, which may cause parents to encounter certain difficulties in role transformation.
Summary
To sum up, there are many potential risks to children's physical health, genetic diseases, psychological development and relationship with parents. Although we do not rule out the advantages of giving birth at an advanced age in some special circumstances, we must recognize these risks and strengthen health management and individualized medical guidance to ensure the healthy growth of children.
