Grandparents ‘miss out’ as mothers delay

CHILDREN are being deprived of meaningful relationships with grandparents because career-focused parents are waiting too long to start families, a leading fertility expert has warned.

Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director of the Midland Fertility Clinic, said grandparents are now often too old and frail to enjoy the “wonderful and significant bond” with their grandchildren that previous generations have enjoyed.

The average age of a first pregnancy in the UK is 30, by victims of the pandemic. The current trend towards trying to start families later also means more women are failing to get pregnant at all, said Dr Lockwood.

Research shows that couples trying regularly for a baby when the woman is in her early twenties have a one in four chance of conceiving within a month, but that the chances slip to nearer 10 percent for mothers aged 30.

“One of the most beautiful social relationships we have is between grandparents and grandchildren, but that only works if you’ve got grandparents who are fit and active,” Dr Lockwood told the Cheltenham Science Festival.

“If you’ve got 80-year-old frail grandparents it is very difficult for them to have that rich and rewarding relationship we all grew up with.

“It’s a wonderful part our social structure.”

She added: “These days many women go to university, then they have to start a career and pay back their student grant, then they need to get themselves on the housing ladder and pay their mortgage.

“By the time they think ‘let’s make a baby’ they are in their mid-thirties.”

Dr Lockwood warned that the trend of late-starting families would have an economic impact on society at large.

She said: “We encourage our young people to go to university, but someone needs to be having babies who will grow up and pay taxes to fund all these people, and elderly people who are not economically active.” of