Is there an ideal age for a woman to have her first baby?

Some say 28 is the perfect age, but in Malawi nearly a third of teenagers will give birth before they are out of their teens

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Forty three years ago this weekend my water’s broke just as the final whistle blew on a Scotland victory over Sweden in a World Cup Qualifying match. Gordon Strachan scored the only goal, kicking off Scotland’s successful attempt to reach the finals in Spain two years later. Funny the things you remember when your life is about to change.

I was 24 years old, and my son, born a few hours later by emergency Caesaeren was my second child. I had my first son just a few week’s short of my 20th birthday. Both pregnancies were unplanned, but at least I wasn’t on my own for the second one, as I had been for my first.

My then-husband held my hand as I was wheeled into the operating theatre. But the last thing voice I heard was the stern tones of a middle-aged nurse telling me to stop crying, there was nothing I could do now, my baby’s fate was in the hands of the doctor.

My son was fine as it turned out. But as soon as I could, I got sterilised. Two pregnancies with life-threatening pre-eclampsia were quite enough thank you. A third might have killed me or the baby, my GP told me when I asked to be sterilised. He still refused my request. I was too young, he said, so I waited until he went on holiday. The young locum who covered for him was no-nonsense. “Of course you should be sterilised,” he said, and the deed was done with a month. By the time I was twenty five my child-carrying days were over.