Rising age of starting family in Netherlands reflects fall in younger not rise in older mothers
BMJ 2008; 337 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a773 (Published 11 July 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a773- Tony Sheldon
- 1Utrecht
The late average age at which Dutch women start families not only poses no medical risk to mothers and children but also offers social benefits, epidemiologists said this week in the Dutch Journal of Medicine (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde 2008;152:1507-12).
In choosing to have their first child at about 29, Dutch women are practising “prudent family planning,” they argue.
The doctor and epidemiologist Luc Bonneux of the Dutch Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute writes that it is wrong to deduce that the rise in the average age at which women have their first child in the Netherlands results from a substantial increase in …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £173 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£38 / $45 / €42 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.