Children benefit from older mothers

Researchers looked at 78,000 youngsters born in England between 2000 and 2002 and found that increasing maternal age is associated with children having fewer hospital admissions and accidents, higher likelihood of having their immunisations by nine months, better language development and fewer social and emotional difficulties.

The findings come as the number of births to women aged 40 and over trebled from 1989 to 2009 to almost 27,000.

The study, published on bmj.com, found at nine months the risk of a child with a 20-year-old mother having an accident was 9.5 per cent which fell to 6.1 per cent for a mother of 40. The risk of a child being hospitalised by nine months was 16 per cent to a younger mother but fell to 10.7 per cent for a mother of 40.

Authors from the University of London said the “findings are noteworthy given the continuing increase in average age at maternity”.