Although its no bad thing that women in their later youth who want babies can have them and to some extent represents a rise in womens rights and advances in healthcare, the report mentions the last time this happened in England was immediately after WW II – the NHS was only just being introduced, the country was in a state of severe austerity, remained on the verge of civil and global conflict and gender rôles remained traditional (any changes caused by the war took decades to filter through to normal society)
Even amongst the women of foreign origin (there are as expected a fair few where I work) they do not start their families until age 30 or above, usually when they have some stability in their relationships and income as its harder for them to keep or get work if they fall pregnant or are raising children.
I suspect the real reason is that all prospective parents currently in Britain realise how expensive babies are to raise and the shortcomings in public services for them so increasingly delay parenthood…
“Over the last 40 years, the percentage of live births to women aged 35 and over has increased considerably.
“Women aged 40 and over now have a higher fertility rate than women aged under 20 – this was last recorded in the 1940s.”
The data also shows that fertility rates have dropped in all age groups under 25 while increasing for all age groups 30 and over.
Women aged between 30 and 34 have the highest fertility of any age group – with 111 births per 1,000 women.
The number of births to women born outside the UK has also continued its rise, reaching 27.5% of all births.
Over 40s ‘have more babies’ than under 20s – BBC News
