About Me

Pregnancy After 30

Welcome to Pregnancy After 30. I’m the Almost Geriatric Mama, mother of one gorgeous little boy who was born in 2018 when I was the ripe old age of 33 (yes, an ALMOST geriatric pregnancy). I enjoy eating allll the food, lazing at the beach, travelling around the world, home organisation and styling (although i’m hopeless at the latter) and a delicious glass of wine or two.

My background is in Teaching (Primary/Elementary School) and I’m enjoying using these skills from a different perspective with my baby boy. I’ve also worked in public relations, media and corporate communications and currently run a web design and development company.

Why did I create Pregnancy After 30?

Growing up, I was never 100% sure if I’d have children. Sure I loved playing mums and dads as a kid, looking after my baby dolls and playing families in the doll house like any little girl, but I also had a university degree or two to complete, needed time to find my way in my career and to be honest was selfishly in love with the life I had with my partner of travel, eating out and doing whatever the heck we wanted, when we wanted. I wasn’t sure if I wanted all of that to change and didn’t no whether having a baby would add to our lives.

When my husband and I really sat down and talked about the possibility of having a baby we pictured our future and decided it definitely included children. We maybe just weren’t feeling quite ready, but maybe you never are 100% sure of such a big change and commitment. Unfortunately the loud tick of my biological clock was getting louder each year and we knew that statistically pregnancy complications after 30 were increased so sooner was better than later if we wanted this for our future. It was now or possibly never.

So when we made the decision to have a baby, I was already 32 and knew my journey might be somewhat different to my pregnant 20-something friends. I was lucky enough to share my pregnancy with some amazing friends and it was great to talk about the ups and downs but sometimes I found myself asking my younger mummy friends “how bad is this pain?” or “isn’t it weird when this happens?”, only to get a blank stare and “that hasn’t happened to me” response. Surprise, surprise it seemed my 30-something body just didn’t readily cope with the burdens of making a little human as easily as my 20-something friends and while absolutely EVERY pregnancy is different in so many ways, I felt my experience was sometimes worlds apart from my younger friends.

How to prepare for pregnancy after 30

I was also at a different life stage in many ways, having already had a decade of working full time, an even longer relationship (I met my husband when I was still at uni, although we didn’t get married until nearly 10 years later), and a pretty good lifestyle thanks to our long standing duel income. Things were going to change in a lot of ways for me getting pregnant at 32 years old, that were not shared by my mummy friends.

Lastly was the constant fear that comes with choosing to have a child a little later in life. The alarming statistics of pregnancy complications after 30, the physical road bumps and how to prepare my body for pregnancy after 30, the thought that, now that we’d decided to get pregnant, what if it didn’t happen now that I wasn’t the best age for pregnancy? The odds were apparently against us.

Desperate for reassurance that everything was going smoothly and in search of answers about my various “old lady” ailments, the possible pregnancy complications after 30 and affects this baby might have on my very long, happy relationship, I did what any smart woman in this day and age does and turned to Dr Google to help me out, only to find most of the internet’s answers, blogs, forums and help articles were also aimed at the those in the “normal” range of pregnancy i.e. early to late 20’s, even though the average age of a first time mum these days is around 28 and the average for all mums is over 30. Feeling lost and sometimes alone in my journey, I started writing down my thoughts, feeling, symptoms and consequently my self discovered answers and solutions as a way to release some of my tension. Part way through my pregnancy, I thought about how helpful some forums and blogs had been to me, despite not always being spot on with my particular scenario and how much more help they would be if they were specifically for someone having a baby after 30, and so Pregnancy After 30 was born.

The Almost Geriatric Mama

So I now had a forum to share my story, but I felt in order to best do that I wanted to remain anonymous (at least for now). I’ve never been the most confident person and even writing this has taken quite some time in order to find the guts to actually bite the bullet and put words down and then a heap more guts to actually publish it or the world to see. By writing under a persona, I feel like I will be able to put all the gory details out on a platter without fear. Sure I know I’m still going to have trolls like many mummy bloggers and indeed all bloggers face, but at least this way I can give myself some separation and really share the deepest parts of what it was like for me personally getting pregnant at 32 years old. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be out and proud but for now I’m staying in the closet.

Having a baby after 30

Along the way, the word geriatric pregnancy was mentioned on and off to me in regards to my pregnancy age. While a geriatric pregnancy is officially awarded to those amazing mamas over 35, I did find I associated myself more with them then the seemingly magical unicorn pregnancies of the 20-somethings and so the name The Almost Geriatric Mama came in fruition. It might need an update soon though because we’re planning our next pregnancy shortly and its inevitable I will be in the pregnancy over 35 bracket by the time I give birth and for at least some, if not all of the pregnancy itself.

I hope you find something useful on my site. Whether it be some reassurance that what is happening in your over 30 pregnancy is normal, some entertainment as I share my crazy stories of getting pregnant at 32 years old or some getting pregnant after 30 tips as you embark on having a baby after 30.

The Almost Geriatric Mama Xx