London - Waiting to have children is a ‘really good thing’, fertility expert Robert Winston has claimed.
The IVF pioneer and broadcaster said older mothers have had time to gain valuable skills and education, as well as build strong relationships, meaning they can provide children with a more stable upbringing.
Lord Professor Winston’s comments come after a leading NHS doctor warned women of the dangers of waiting to start a family.
Geeta Nargund said that declining fertility means that, ideally, a woman should start trying for a baby before she hits 30.
Professor Nargund, head of reproductive medicine at St George’s Hospital in London, warned that Britain faces a “fertility time bomb”, with one in six couples having difficulty conceiving.
She also said she has “witnessed all too often the shock and agony on the faces of women who realise they have left it too late to start a family”.
Around half of all babies are now born to women aged 30 and over, and the number of children born to women aged 40-plus has trebled in the last 20 years.
But Lord Winston told the Cheltenham Science Festival that it is wrong for doctors to preach about the best age for motherhood – and argued there are numerous advantages to waiting.
He said: “Women are leaving childbirth till later and I think it is really a good thing. They are able to gain skills and education and contribute more to society by delaying starting a family. Also they are more secure. They know what partner they want, they know they have a partnership which will stick.
“They may also have a better milieu in which to bring up a child as well. I am very unhappy about doctors pontificating about when the right time is to have a child.
“We should accept that society is changing and we should do more to support women who want to have children when they are older by making childcare more available to them.
“At the moment it is very expensive. I don’t think at the moment that we have the right society to support modern men and women.”
Lord Winston also spoke out in support of an IVF technique that will allow women to have babies that have three genetic parents.
The technique, which has been approved by Britain’s parliament, will allow families blighted by incurable diseases caused by defects in mitochondria, the tiny structures that power cells, to have healthy children.
However, it has generated controversy because any babies that are created will have DNA from two people and so effectively have three parents – two mothers and a father.
Daily Mail