With IVF available worldwide, more women are giving birth in their 40’s, 50’s and even 60’s and 70’s. That’s right, 70’s. ABC News reported in 2008 that a 72-year-old Indian woman had given birth.

Is medicine taking it a step too far? Apart from Nature’s oversight in allowing men to reproduce well into their retirement years, she usually gets things right, so she must have legitimate reasons for putting an age limit on childbirth, right? I’m not judging women who choose to have babies when they should be sending their children (or grandchildren) to college; I just have concerns when motherhood comes late in life.

In 2010, I gave birth 12 days before my 40th birthday. After five years of trying to conceive, I tried IVF and was blessed, after the fourth attempt, with a baby girl. I had never given much thought to age as a factor in my pregnancy; all I could see was the end result after years of heartache. Not until all the aches and pains of late pregnancy started to set in did I wonder how I was going to have the energy to give birth, let alone raise an infant, a toddler, a preschooler and, gasp, a teenager? There are also health issues associated with “advanced maternal age”, as my obstetricians kindly referred to my pregnancy, and increased risks of genetic issues with the baby. And as a woman’s age increases, there are also moral responsibilities to take into consideration such as, “will I be around long enough to see my daughter have her first child, walk down the aisle, attend college, graduate from preschool?” But if you’re anything like me, those worries would come at any age; such are the joys and concerns of motherhood.

But let’s face it, as we get older, things just don’t work as well as we would like. It takes me longer just to get out of bed these days, several minutes for my body to agree to the idea of moving around for another day. And God forbid if I crouch down: after a few moments of groaning I pull myself up, but by then my exuberant little bundle of joy is out the door and down the road, and now I have to run to catch up. That’s enough to put me out for a few days.

But honestly, apart from the bank teller and cashier at my local supermarket telling me how sweet my granddaughter is, I feel younger than ever. My daughter keeps me playing, running and laughing. So perhaps that’s it. Maybe children are the Fountain of Youth and now that medicine has found the source more women are drinking from it.

So who are we to limit such an amazing resource? I wish that joy for everyone. But before you consider childbirth in your twilight years, just give a thought for your knees, lower back and need for a full night’s sleep. And keep taking your Centrum, you’ll need it.