Affluent, educated women are fueling the trend
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It's easy to spot little children playing in Granite Bay, Calif., even though few 20-something parents can afford to live there.
On just one street, you might hear 2-year-old Matthew Heinsen, whose mom, DeDee, is 38, splashing with his brother in the family's backyard pool. Or, a couple of houses down, you might see 3-year-old Julie Jenkins, whose mom, Sarah, is 42, all dressed up like a ballerina, ready to be driven to lessons.
Granite Bay, where nearly 40 percent of births in 2005 were to mothers 35 and older, is the vertex of a trend.
Since 1990, the birthrate among women 35 and older has risen about 45 percent in California's Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento and Yolo counties combined — almost twice as fast as the increase statewide, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of records from the California Department of Health Services. In 2005, about one of every six local births was to women over 35, up from one of every 10 in 1990.
Better fertility drugs and more women entering second marriages are factors in the trend, parenting experts say. But it also directly parallels the number of highly educated, highly paid women in the region.
Mothers 35 and older are almost twice as likely to have a college degree as mothers younger than 35, The Sacramento Bee's analysis shows.
And the increase in births to older moms is most pronounced in Davis, El Dorado Hills, east Sacramento, Curtis Park and Granite Bay — where higher-income, highly educated women are more common.
Dana Paskowitz, a clinical psychologist in Davis who specializes in parenting issues, sees it in her practice, where she works with a lot of older mothers who "were pursuing advanced degrees and aiming for a high-powered career."
Because of their age, these moms face unique struggles before, during and after pregnancy. But as their kids grow up, older mothers also bring something distinctive to their communities, showing a high propensity to volunteer and contribute financially — actions that help build a strong support system for children.
The first challenge for some is getting pregnant, creating a market for fertility clinics.
"I had some fertility issues ... because of being older," said DeDee Heinsen, who had Matthew, her second child, with the help of fertility pills. "Once you've tried to have kids — when it doesn't happen right away, it's kind of frustrating."
Besides having a greater need for such treatment, older, career-oriented women are also more likely to be able to afford it. Fertility pills alone can cost $30 to $300 per cycle, said Dr. Michael Murray, a local fertility specialist. Fertility injections can run $2,000 per cycle, and in-vitro fertilization can cost $15,000 per cycle.
Murray works at the largest such facility in the region, the Northern California Fertility Medical Center in Roseville, where he said in-vitro fertilizations have roughly doubled since 2000, to about 600 a year. Most of that growth, he said, has been in the 35 to 40 age group.
Conceiving is not the end to medical issues for older mothers, either. Local mothers 35 and older are slightly more likely to have low-birthweight babies and 60 percent more likely to undergo Caesarean sections than younger mothers, The Sacramento Bee's analysis found. Existing health problems also can be exaggerated by pregnancy."Your body is running a marathon for nine months," said Dena Towner, acting chief of maternal/fetal medicine at UC Davis Medical Center.Gina Williams, 37, who belongs to the same Bayside Church Mothers of Preschoolers group as Heinsen, had her third child two years ago. She had experienced problems with diabetes during her first pregnancy. But it was worse the third time."At 35, I had more trouble managing it," she said. "Your sugar levels drop off, so you feel really shaky. You just feel weird."Gretchen Yip, another member of the Granite Bay mothers support group, tells a similar story.A mother of three daughters, Yip is 41. She had had a couple of miscarriages earlier in life but then had few problems giving birth twice in her early 30s. Five years ago, however, she nearly lost Olivia after she thought she was in the clear — in the second trimester."I thought I had lost her completely," said Yip, who ended up stuck in bed for the next six weeks.After giving birth, older moms quickly encounter the realities of doing a job traditionally undertaken by women not much more than half their age."The main difference is maybe my energy level," said Sarah Jenkins, mom of two, including Julie, the 3-year-old budding ballerina.Difficulties aside, older moms have some advantages over their younger counterparts, and can be a boon to their communities. For one thing, many have spent years accumulating wealth."Obviously, to live in Granite Bay, you have to have a certain income," Jenkins said. "A lot of the mothers are like me, where they had their careers early."Extra income allows Jenkins and some of the other older moms to stay at home and raise their kids. It also allows them to give more of their time and money to the community.Many of the older parents in Granite Bay are transplants from other parts of the state and country, said Phil Johnson, head of the Eureka Schools Foundation, the local schools' booster club. They are grateful for good public schools, he said, and keen to pay back some of the price difference between those and private schools in donations and volunteer hours."The people who donate the most are the ones who are older," said Johnson. "They say it is a steal."Willingness to help out goes beyond school and toward churches, nonprofit organizations or clubs such as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts."I think that's the second component to being a full-time mom," said Williams, who volunteers at her local church and her oldest son's school. "It's fulfillment beyond the laundry basket and going from play date to play date."The older mothers themselves number among their biggest contributions something far less concrete: the basic traits of maturity.That maturity shows up in the way Heinsen responds to her 5-year-old, Eric. He's a firecracker whose news of what he learned in gymnastics class or a trick he can do in the pool just can't wait until his mom is done talking."Eric," Heinsen says calmly, "we don't need to shout."Her relaxed attitude, she reflected later, was based on experience: "Been there, done that." Having older women in the group seems beneficial, she added, because, "It's nice to have someone who can encourage or help you when you just want to scream."
