Why having a baby after 35 can boost brain power
WOMEN are often warned about leaving it late to have children, as they may face a higher risk of suffering complications – or be unable to get pregnant at all.
But now scientists say there is an upside to delaying motherhood – it can boost your brain power.
Women who had their last child after the age of 35 had sharper memories in middle age than those who completed their family earlier, a study found.
The research even suggests that having a child after 35 could protect against memory loss in later life.
It is thought that the hormones that flood the body during pregnancy – oestrogen and progesterone – affect the brain’s chemistry and improve cognitive function. And it may be that having experienced them later is more beneficial.
The US scientists said their finding was not enough to tell women to delay having children, but that it is nevertheless important.
In the study, which is the first to examine how pregnancy timing affects memory, 830 menopausal women did a series of tests, including reading and remembering word lists and retelling a story they had heard after being distracted.
Those who had had their first baby after the age of 24 were better at problem-solving and reasoning than those who gave birth earlier. And those who had their last baby after 35 had better cognition and verbal memory. Having two babies was also found to be better than one for the brain.
The researchers acknowledged that there may also be a link between the lifestyles and socio-economic status of women who have babies later and their cognitive function. Analysis last month found mothers who have babies in their 30s or later are likely to be middle-class or well-paid professionals.
Newsreader Kate Silverton, 46, gave birth to her daughter Clemency at the age of 41 and son Wilbur when she was almost 44.
The team said: ‘It has been suggested that functional brain changes induced by reproductive experiences have lifelong effects, particularly in terms of improvement in memory and learning. Therefore it is biologically plausible that a late pregnancy might offer protection against cognitive decline in later life.’
Lead author Dr Roksana Karim, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, said: ‘While it is not enough to suggest that women wait until after 35 years of age to close their family growth, our finding of a positive effect of later age at last pregnancy on late-life cognition is novel and substantial.’
The researchers, who published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, also found being on the contraceptive pill for more than a decade improved memory in speech and problem-solving tasks.
This too was linked to the beneficial effects of oestrogen and progesterone, which are found in the Pill.
These hormones are also thought to be behind previous findings that starting your period earlier boosts brain power, while a later period has been linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It therefore seems a longer reproductive life is better for the brain.
Animal studies also suggest an improvement in learning and memory begins in pregnancy, although this has not been confirmed in humans.
‘Improved memory and learning’