Sept. 7, 2026
Ciara Pregnant With #5 At 40, As Births Jump 127% For Women In Their 40s
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RSS Feed Congratulations to Ciara and hubby Russell Wilson, who have just announced they’re expecting their fifth child. Their announcement comes as the latest statistics show for the first time ever, there are now more older women having children than teens. As medical advancements continue, and more women choosing to focus on their careers and finding the right mate, the fertility rate for women ages 35 to 39 have jumped up by 71% and for women 40-44, by 127%.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, September 7th, Labor Day, and congratulations are in order for Ciara, who just announced she is pregnant with her fifth child. And she continues now a trend we have seen not just with celebrity women, but all women. In the United States. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. First thing that came to your mind when you heard she was pregnant. Just what was your initial reaction to it? Whatever it was.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: Oh, it was excitement.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: Pretty cool.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Sierra and her beautiful, beautiful family.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Russell Wilson.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: If you go and look just on her or his Instagram, what's so cool about them is just how much they promote love.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: Their family. Look, and I know everyone, it's not like it's some singular thing.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: But to be that big of a celebrity and to have those careers that each one has, you can see their focus is their family.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Their number one priority is their family.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: It's fairly evident in how they operate, how they move, and how they even show the world a little bit about who they are.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: It always involves their kids.
00:01:11
Speaker 1: See, I always liked these two individually from afar. And admired them both, how they handled their careers, how they continued their careers even. And then when they got together, I'm like, okay, that makes sense.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: That's kind of freaking awesome. And look, Robes, sometimes people just look good together. That whole family is just gorgeous.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: It's very cool.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: Everybody is just picturesque.
00:01:35
Speaker 3: And it's a blended family too, which is really special. I think they're kind of a beacon of light for a lot of folks whoâ Don't necessarily always get it right the first time, but you can find a way. If you find your forever person, you can build something really beautiful, and I think they're proof of that.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: And they keep building. So she is pregnant with her fifth. It'll be their fourth together. She right now has kids age 12, 9, 6, and 2, and this will be the new one. She's been married to Russell Wilson since 2016. Now, the oldest is with Future, rapper Future. They were in a relationship. Were they married?
00:02:10
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were ever married.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: They were in a relationship for a long time. But the kid's name is Future and being raised, part of the growing family. Now, I said the ages. Tell me why you reacted that way to 12, 9, 6, 2, and now a new one.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: Because that is just a lot of work.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: I see that and I am just my, I am so impressed because she talks about taking her kids on tour with her.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: I know she has help.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: I know that they have means and resources, yes, and all of that. But still, that is a lot of kids. Yeah, in a span of, I guess, what will end up being, what, 12 years, you have five kids. Just that's a lot on the body. That's a lot on your brain. Look, my grandmother had 10 kids by.
00:02:54
Speaker 2: The age of 40.
00:02:55
Speaker 1: How did she space them out?
00:02:57
Speaker 2: It was almost like one a year. It was crazy.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: Oh, the factory was open and she just kept them.
00:03:02
Speaker 2: Well, look, she was funny.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: My grandmother was a Southern Baptist from Mississippi, but who married a Catholic man And so the birth control was out and she just started having babies.
00:03:12
Speaker 1: What was the biggest gap between kids? Would you say like two or three or four or five years?
00:03:16
Speaker 3: Maybe two years at the most between, but it's, I mean, it was, my mom has.
00:03:21
Speaker 1: A full brood of siblings.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: I mean, it's, it's pretty remarkable, but I just know like, and then her whole life was her kids and granted she was a stay at home mom. Sierra is a working woman and is now going to have five by the.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Age of 40.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: In modern times, that is beyond impressive.
00:03:40
Speaker 1: So these two have been married since 2016. Robes do that mad. Their first is nine years old. They pretty much started.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: They started right away.
00:03:47
Speaker 1: Immediately. And here they are. They're about to add another one. Now, this, Robes, is a growing trend. We have seen, I guess, folks will say, yeah, folks in Hollywood, women are having babies older. And we have seen this happen in their 40s. We've even seen a few happen in the 50s. And so we hear this, and I was hesitant to start to actually have this conversation. Where does, or does it belong anywhere in the conversation that any woman or women or the trend is that women are having babies older? It seems to come with some I don't know, a negative connotation to a certain degree to even discuss it. But I think it's a great thing. I was scared to have the conversation.
00:04:31
Speaker 2: And I said, no, this is absolutely a worthwhile conversation.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: Every woman, I've told you this, and every young girl comes up or had come up to me and said, how do you do it? How did you balance having kids and having a really active career? That's always a struggle for a lot of women. So to know that they have the choice to actually really build a career first and then start to have a family is That takes.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: Some of the pressure off of women.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: However, look, I know that there have been incredible scientific breakthroughs, medical breakthroughs that have allowed.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: Women to have children later.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: I do think that what the cautionary tale is that younger women shouldn't feel like, oh, it's a given.
00:05:07
Speaker 2: Now that we've.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: Got the ability to freeze our eggs, now that we have the ability to have In vitro fertilization. And we have all of these hormones that we can pump into our bodies to facilitate an older woman being able to remain pregnant and have a healthy child. All of that's great and remarkable, but it's not guaranteed.
00:05:25
Speaker 2: It's expensive.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: It can have some potential side effects and potential side effects. just issues that could happen later in life when you're pumping your body with hormones.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: But look, it's.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Amazing and it's exciting and it gives women options, but I just think it doesn't, it shouldn't all be presented as just this perfect gift wrapped up in a bow that says, here, just delay having kids and it'll all work out. I think some women have learned, unfortunately, in a very devastating hard way, that miscarriages are more likely, birth defects are more likely. There are a lot of issues that do come along with being an older mother and But.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: There were some benefits too.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: So it's just a matter of being able to weigh the options and knowing the information that's out there. It just shouldn't be presented as an automatic, you'll be able to have a child after the age of 40 because of modern science. Okay.
00:06:16
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. You just hit on why I was struggling and the way to tell this. In that, Robes, I looked at the Instagram posts. I see... everything they're showing and the celebration of adding to their family, a couple that I adore from afar and love the family. I want it to. I'm saying this is all just beautiful. Is it wrong to even mention the other thing? Because it seems like it's taking away from, you're saying it's adding context too. It's a part of the whole conversation.
00:06:48
Speaker 2: I think it adds context too.
00:06:49
Speaker 3: And also, I would just look, and again, I know that me getting breast cancer at 40, and I had had it for a couple of years, so I certainly... had breast cancer in my thirties. I think a lot of women might think, oh, I can wait until my late thirties to have a baby. And most certainly, probably most women can, but there are some of us and there are women who don't even know it. But having a baby for me, I remember the first thing my oncologist said to me is you are out of the baby making business. I had a hormonally positive cancer and look, you can still take the risk and It's not that you can't, but a lot of doctors would say you shouldn't. It's risky to have a baby at a certain point if you've had a certain type of cancer. But I just think to put all your eggs in one basket, to use a bad pun, to say I can do this in my late 30s, I can do this in my 40s, you also just have to consider that your body, your medical history, what is in your medical future, you don't know yet.
00:07:43
Speaker 2: It's just you should understand.
00:07:44
Speaker 3: All of what comes with potentially having a baby later in life.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: Um, yes, that's, that is all worth knowing. And again, I do robes and we have a list we'll share here, but all the stories I remember about women, older women having their babies were, I think all I feel is good about it. I do too. I don't feel, well, I've been reading more and doing more research and getting into it more this morning to where I'm like, wow, this is, this is really risky stuff. And it can be, and there ain't a doctor I've seen who would ever actually tell a woman, you know what? You're good. Wait till you're 42.
00:08:20
Speaker 3: No, no. And in fact, my brother, who's a doctor, I remember when I started to get into my late 20s, he was like, I'm not trying to put pressure on you, but you should just know that I think he told me after age 27, your fertility rate starts to decline pretty rapidly. And while it's technically possible to get pregnant at a certain point in time after pregnancy, 40, 50, using your own egg, the chance of success is very, very rare. And I think what isn't talked about is that most women in advanced ages of late 40s, 50s, you don't have eggs that are viable. You end up having to use a donor egg in almost every circumstance.
00:08:58
Speaker 2: But that's not talked about.
00:08:59
Speaker 3: So there's a fantasy out there, I think, for women in their 20s who are worried about finding the right mate, who are trying to create careers for themselves and are saying to themselves, I can wait another 15, 20 years. And they might be able to, but they should also just understand that it's not guaranteed and there are risks associated with it.
00:09:17
Speaker 1: And that's a lot. I don't even know how expensive this is, but.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: The idea of freezing your eggs.
00:09:21
Speaker 1: Which a lot of women, and we'll get into some of the celebrities, at least I've done this, did do that exact thing. But robes, I did not realize this. This was fascinating to hear how women, older women, excuse what's the right way to put it? I sound offensive and everything.
00:09:36
Speaker 2: It doesn't offend me. Like, look, I'm an older woman.
00:09:38
Speaker 3: I'm not offended by it. That's all right. It's just the truth. It's the facts.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: But women who are 35, 40 plus, the rate at which they are now giving birth has gone off the charts. Robes, this is a thing. It can be said. It is a fact. More and more and more women are having kids in their 40s. This is a thing. This is a trend. This is real, and it is here. The thing that got me, Robes, that for the first time, the National Institutes of Health, they put their study out in 2023, so it's the latest year that we have. Actually, they put it out last year, but that's the latest year we have stats for. That year was the first one they have, Robes, on record in which the number of women giving birth over the age of 40 outpaced the number of teenage births we had in the country. My goodness. Hear that out. Robes, teen births, been focused on this for decades, obviously, and trying to get that down. But teen births represented 13% of all births in 1990. By 2023, only 4% of all births. Now, that helped out a lot. Greatly, obviously, in adjusting this. But this is the one that blew my mind. Fertility rates for women 35 to 39 in that same period went up 71 percent.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: My goodness. For women 40 to 44.
00:11:00
Speaker 1: Went up 127 percent. Robes, that is ginormous. There is a huge shift in the way we think about women having babies.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: And look, I'll be honest.
00:11:12
Speaker 3: I would have loved to have thought I could have had a baby in my 40s. I wouldn't have been able to because of my breast cancer, but I saw my friends do it.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: I saw them at 40, 41, 42. I have two friends who gave birth. I won't name them.
00:11:26
Speaker 3: They ended up using donor eggs, but 48 and 49. And they had healthy pregnancies. They just weren't able to use their own eggs, but they certainly carried the baby and had healthy children as a result. And that is remarkable, but it's expensive.
00:11:42
Speaker 2: It's time consuming.
00:11:43
Speaker 3: It's filled with oftentimes some loss because this is not a guaranteed situation.
00:11:49
Speaker 1: But it's also possible.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: But it's possible.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: That's the thing, right? It's now possible. So just go back a decade ago, most... births were to women between the ages of 25 and 29 that make about sense.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: Yeah that was 2012 yeah i had my first baby at 29 okay and granted i was um i guess i don't know and then my second was at 32 i had just turned 33 okay so 29.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: And 33 a decade later so that was in 2012 but a decade later most births were to women between the age of 30 and 44 30 and 34 30 and what i say 44 30 30 and 34 robes The stats bear this out. Women are waiting.
00:12:28
Speaker 3: Yes. And 35, anyone who's been pregnant knows that is considered the age at which if you're past 35, that's called a geriatric pregnancy.
00:12:37
Speaker 1: Those doctors will freak you out.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: I know. I remember I actually was so... I had Annalise when I, again, I was 32 when I got pregnant. I had just turned 33 when I gave birth to her. I remember thinking, oh, thank God I got in before 35. Like there was just this thing that was, I felt like there was this threshold over my head that I shouldn't wait until after 35. I definitely felt a, a time, uh, like a time bomb going off. But a lot of women would say that's, you know, that's unfair. Like you're, you're now, maybe you're rushing to be with the wrong mate or you're willing to Yes, have a child with someone you shouldn't have otherwise. Or, you know, you're derailing your career. I mean, there's all the amount of pressure that women feel if they know they want to be moms is pretty significant. And so I do think it's awesome that many women do have options. And I just think it needs to come with The fine print. Every woman needs to understand. We see these celebrity examples and yes, it is joyful and it's wonderful. Who doesn't celebrate seeing new life and just the hope that comes with it and the excitement that it's possible for women that it wouldn't have been possible for otherwise.
00:13:47
Speaker 2: All of that is good. And I do love it.
00:13:49
Speaker 3: It just, I do worry that sometimes it isn't provided with the proper context.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: Well, because the pictures are pretty, and that's the truth. And we're going to get into one here in just a sec, Rob. There was one person in particular that had 10 years. She ended up giving birth in her 50s, but it was a journey, she said, that started 10 years. They were trying for 10 years to do this in their family planning. So why is this happening? I guess it makes sense. You hit on some of the stuff, why it's different now, yes, or why women are waiting longer. Yes, there are different attitudes about career. There's different attitudes about dating, about marriage, about when to do all this stuff. And obviously we have these medical advancements. All that stuff is good. I haven't seen necessarily yet, Robes, we haven't seen any trends where there's a, I don't know, we're noticing something emerge like, oh my goodness, women are having babies older, so now this means blank, blank, and a blank. There doesn't seem to be a downside, if you will. There are challenges, but ultimately they go on and have babies and have families and Everything's fine to have a mom in her 40s when she's... Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker 3: Look, I think the downside, the upside is you get to have, you get to really cultivate your career and figure out who you are, and you might be a more patient mom, a more focused mom. You know, I do wish that I could have maybe even delayed it by a decade and been able to be more relaxed and more focused and less career-centered. That would have been maybe more beneficial to my kids.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:15:12
Speaker 1: We have options, baby.
00:15:13
Speaker 3: Yeah. But because not only is it my age, it's yeah, it's a lot of stuff, but it's all.
00:15:22
Speaker 2: Sorts of stuff.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:24
Speaker 3: But the point being is, I do think that the downside is that, yeah, you might not get to know your grandkids. You might not get to be around for some of life's later milestones that your children might wish you.
00:15:36
Speaker 2: Could be in. But look, with the good comes the bad. That's just a part of life.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: All right. Well, stay with us here, folks. A reminder, didn't realize the list was so long of celebrity women who have given birth in their early 40s, late 40s, even 50s.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: Stay here. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Yes, we're celebrating the news that Ciara, at the age of 40, yes, is pregnant with her fifth child. Congratulations to Ciara and Russell Wilson. But it definitely got us talking as we see more and more celebrities giving birth in their 40s and their 50s.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: We were actually still surprised.
00:16:23
Speaker 3: Some of these names and ages I don't think I was even aware of. The one I remember the most making the biggest headline at the time was Janet Jackson.
00:16:31
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: Because she was 50 years old, 2017. She was on the cover of People, maybe? But obviously stunningly beautiful and pregnant and had a healthy baby. And that was just like a shocker, honestly, to think that someone could give birth at the age of 50 to a healthy child.
00:16:50
Speaker 1: That's remarkable. She carried that baby. Yes, she carried that baby. Now, we should say, you were talking earlier as well, The doctors will tell you. There is a certain point, if you hear about a woman over the age of 45, whatever the number you use, but at some point you do not have, unless you use a donor egg or froze your eggs, You just can't.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: Yes, your eggs.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: Look, we're born as women with all the eggs we're going to have in our entire lifetime. And so I believe starting at a certain age, you just start to rapidly shed them. And the ones that do remain are the less viable ones, are the ones that are more likely to have chromosomal deficiencies, etc. So it gets a little scary about what your egg reserve might be like.
00:17:32
Speaker 2: But look....
00:17:34
Speaker 3: And obviously, there are plenty of ways for women to have children, just a little unconventional.
00:17:42
Speaker 1: Yes, and a lot of, and again, this list we're talking here, all of these folks gave birth. This was not an adoption situation.
00:17:48
Speaker 2: Or a surrogate situation.
00:17:50
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: Aubrey Plaza, did she, has she had that baby yet?
00:17:54
Speaker 2: Yes, she just had the baby.
00:17:55
Speaker 3: I actually have seen some paparazzi photos of her, unfortunately, trying to shield the baby from the photographers. But yes, she just had the baby not that long ago.
00:18:03
Speaker 2: Hilary Swank at the age of 48.
00:18:05
Speaker 1: I believe this is a frozen egg situation.
00:18:07
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: I believe it was. But yes, 48. That was a couple of years ago. I didn't remember Alanis Morissette.
00:18:14
Speaker 3: 45.
00:18:14
Speaker 2: Gave birth to her son.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: That was back in 2019.
00:18:18
Speaker 2: Bridget Nielsen. This one was shocking.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: This was the one I was talking about. She said she and her husband started at 42. thinking about this. And it took time. It took years and they stayed at it. She gave birth, frozen eggs. They were hers. 54 years old. Gave birth to a healthy baby.
00:18:36
Speaker 3: That is, I mean, and by the way, those 10 years, like that, that is a devotion to wanting a family of your own.
00:18:43
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: Rachel Weisz, um, 48 years old. I didn't realize she was that, um, that advanced in age. She always seems like a 32 year old to me, but yes, 48.
00:18:54
Speaker 1: Love that woman. And then she was married to James Bond. So this is like, I love this couple.
00:18:58
Speaker 2: Power couple.
00:18:59
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:18:59
Speaker 2: We've mentioned Janet Jackson.
00:19:00
Speaker 3: Laura Linney at 49 in 2014 had her child. We remember Kelly Preston at 48.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: What were the circumstances?
00:19:08
Speaker 3: So the reason behind this one, I recall, and I do believe she... And look, there's been plenty of folks who have tried to track down, we won't get into.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: It, where the egg came from. But she used a donor egg.
00:19:18
Speaker 3: But their son, her and John Travolta's son, Jet, wasn't that his name?
00:19:25
Speaker 2: He actually had this terrible accident. I believe he was 16 years old, fell in the shower and died. And so they were mourning the loss of him.
00:19:33
Speaker 3: They had another... little girl named Ella. And I remember she was born around the same time Ava was. So I always kind of kept up with them, you know, when you're pregnant at.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: The same time as someone else.
00:19:43
Speaker 3: But yeah, this was kind of them wanting to have a miracle baby and they did dealing with the loss of their son and they did um so yeah she did that at 48 holly hunter at 47 i didn't remember that one and gina davis 48 didn't remember that susan sarandon 46 didn't remember nancy grace 48 she had twins and she actually talked about having some life-threatening complications so um and gwen stefani Had her last one at 44.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: All impressive. It is.
00:20:14
Speaker 1: And they were all healthy. But all of them from reading this morning have a story, have some journey. Something was happening behind the scenes that got them to there. They just didn't wake up one day.
00:20:23
Speaker 3: Oh, my goodness.
00:20:23
Speaker 1: This is great. I'm pregnant. It was not that. So, Robes, it's... So, yes, you've brought me around to dealing with the hesitation I had over this. It is important. It is important to add the extra part and have this... And this still is celebratory. This still is a wonderful feat that we should be saying, great, women have more options now.
00:20:45
Speaker 3: Yes, and families have more options and women might feel less pressure.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Um, and I think it's.
00:20:50
Speaker 3: Just an individual choice of what you're willing to put your body through because you really do. If you want a baby at that age, oftentimes it does take some very active, uh, investment of time, money, your body dealing with heartbreak and loss, but hoping in the end that you do get to complete your family or at least grow your family in the way you want to do it. And I do think options are great just with, full information involved. I think, yeah, the celebrity stories are wonderful. But as you point out, there's oftentimes more to them than meets the eye.
00:21:23
Speaker 1: Congrats. Congrats, Sierra Russell Wilson. Looking forward to it. Of course, check out their photos. They had a joint Instagram post they put up and it's just perfect. It's perfect.
00:21:35
Speaker 2: It is.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Everything about it is perfect. But congrats to them. We appreciate you as always. Hope you're having a good, good, uh, Labor Day.
00:21:41
Speaker 2: Labor Day.
00:21:42
Speaker 1: Wherever you might be. But we appreciate you spending a little of your holiday here with us. I'm TJ. That's Robes. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, September 7th, Labor Day, and congratulations are in order for Ciara, who just announced she is pregnant with her fifth child. And she continues now a trend we have seen not just with celebrity women, but all women. In the United States. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. First thing that came to your mind when you heard she was pregnant. Just what was your initial reaction to it? Whatever it was.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: Oh, it was excitement.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: Pretty cool.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Sierra and her beautiful, beautiful family.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Russell Wilson.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: If you go and look just on her or his Instagram, what's so cool about them is just how much they promote love.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: Their family. Look, and I know everyone, it's not like it's some singular thing.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: But to be that big of a celebrity and to have those careers that each one has, you can see their focus is their family.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Their number one priority is their family.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: It's fairly evident in how they operate, how they move, and how they even show the world a little bit about who they are.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: It always involves their kids.
00:01:11
Speaker 1: See, I always liked these two individually from afar. And admired them both, how they handled their careers, how they continued their careers even. And then when they got together, I'm like, okay, that makes sense.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: That's kind of freaking awesome. And look, Robes, sometimes people just look good together. That whole family is just gorgeous.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: It's very cool.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: Everybody is just picturesque.
00:01:35
Speaker 3: And it's a blended family too, which is really special. I think they're kind of a beacon of light for a lot of folks whoâ Don't necessarily always get it right the first time, but you can find a way. If you find your forever person, you can build something really beautiful, and I think they're proof of that.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: And they keep building. So she is pregnant with her fifth. It'll be their fourth together. She right now has kids age 12, 9, 6, and 2, and this will be the new one. She's been married to Russell Wilson since 2016. Now, the oldest is with Future, rapper Future. They were in a relationship. Were they married?
00:02:10
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were ever married.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: They were in a relationship for a long time. But the kid's name is Future and being raised, part of the growing family. Now, I said the ages. Tell me why you reacted that way to 12, 9, 6, 2, and now a new one.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: Because that is just a lot of work.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: I see that and I am just my, I am so impressed because she talks about taking her kids on tour with her.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: I know she has help.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: I know that they have means and resources, yes, and all of that. But still, that is a lot of kids. Yeah, in a span of, I guess, what will end up being, what, 12 years, you have five kids. Just that's a lot on the body. That's a lot on your brain. Look, my grandmother had 10 kids by.
00:02:54
Speaker 2: The age of 40.
00:02:55
Speaker 1: How did she space them out?
00:02:57
Speaker 2: It was almost like one a year. It was crazy.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: Oh, the factory was open and she just kept them.
00:03:02
Speaker 2: Well, look, she was funny.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: My grandmother was a Southern Baptist from Mississippi, but who married a Catholic man And so the birth control was out and she just started having babies.
00:03:12
Speaker 1: What was the biggest gap between kids? Would you say like two or three or four or five years?
00:03:16
Speaker 3: Maybe two years at the most between, but it's, I mean, it was, my mom has.
00:03:21
Speaker 1: A full brood of siblings.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: I mean, it's, it's pretty remarkable, but I just know like, and then her whole life was her kids and granted she was a stay at home mom. Sierra is a working woman and is now going to have five by the.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Age of 40.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: In modern times, that is beyond impressive.
00:03:40
Speaker 1: So these two have been married since 2016. Robes do that mad. Their first is nine years old. They pretty much started.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: They started right away.
00:03:47
Speaker 1: Immediately. And here they are. They're about to add another one. Now, this, Robes, is a growing trend. We have seen, I guess, folks will say, yeah, folks in Hollywood, women are having babies older. And we have seen this happen in their 40s. We've even seen a few happen in the 50s. And so we hear this, and I was hesitant to start to actually have this conversation. Where does, or does it belong anywhere in the conversation that any woman or women or the trend is that women are having babies older? It seems to come with some I don't know, a negative connotation to a certain degree to even discuss it. But I think it's a great thing. I was scared to have the conversation.
00:04:31
Speaker 2: And I said, no, this is absolutely a worthwhile conversation.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: Every woman, I've told you this, and every young girl comes up or had come up to me and said, how do you do it? How did you balance having kids and having a really active career? That's always a struggle for a lot of women. So to know that they have the choice to actually really build a career first and then start to have a family is That takes.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: Some of the pressure off of women.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: However, look, I know that there have been incredible scientific breakthroughs, medical breakthroughs that have allowed.
00:04:59
Speaker 2: Women to have children later.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: I do think that what the cautionary tale is that younger women shouldn't feel like, oh, it's a given.
00:05:07
Speaker 2: Now that we've.
00:05:07
Speaker 3: Got the ability to freeze our eggs, now that we have the ability to have In vitro fertilization. And we have all of these hormones that we can pump into our bodies to facilitate an older woman being able to remain pregnant and have a healthy child. All of that's great and remarkable, but it's not guaranteed.
00:05:25
Speaker 2: It's expensive.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: It can have some potential side effects and potential side effects. just issues that could happen later in life when you're pumping your body with hormones.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: But look, it's.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Amazing and it's exciting and it gives women options, but I just think it doesn't, it shouldn't all be presented as just this perfect gift wrapped up in a bow that says, here, just delay having kids and it'll all work out. I think some women have learned, unfortunately, in a very devastating hard way, that miscarriages are more likely, birth defects are more likely. There are a lot of issues that do come along with being an older mother and But.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: There were some benefits too.
00:06:04
Speaker 3: So it's just a matter of being able to weigh the options and knowing the information that's out there. It just shouldn't be presented as an automatic, you'll be able to have a child after the age of 40 because of modern science. Okay.
00:06:16
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. You just hit on why I was struggling and the way to tell this. In that, Robes, I looked at the Instagram posts. I see... everything they're showing and the celebration of adding to their family, a couple that I adore from afar and love the family. I want it to. I'm saying this is all just beautiful. Is it wrong to even mention the other thing? Because it seems like it's taking away from, you're saying it's adding context too. It's a part of the whole conversation.
00:06:48
Speaker 2: I think it adds context too.
00:06:49
Speaker 3: And also, I would just look, and again, I know that me getting breast cancer at 40, and I had had it for a couple of years, so I certainly... had breast cancer in my thirties. I think a lot of women might think, oh, I can wait until my late thirties to have a baby. And most certainly, probably most women can, but there are some of us and there are women who don't even know it. But having a baby for me, I remember the first thing my oncologist said to me is you are out of the baby making business. I had a hormonally positive cancer and look, you can still take the risk and It's not that you can't, but a lot of doctors would say you shouldn't. It's risky to have a baby at a certain point if you've had a certain type of cancer. But I just think to put all your eggs in one basket, to use a bad pun, to say I can do this in my late 30s, I can do this in my 40s, you also just have to consider that your body, your medical history, what is in your medical future, you don't know yet.
00:07:43
Speaker 2: It's just you should understand.
00:07:44
Speaker 3: All of what comes with potentially having a baby later in life.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: Um, yes, that's, that is all worth knowing. And again, I do robes and we have a list we'll share here, but all the stories I remember about women, older women having their babies were, I think all I feel is good about it. I do too. I don't feel, well, I've been reading more and doing more research and getting into it more this morning to where I'm like, wow, this is, this is really risky stuff. And it can be, and there ain't a doctor I've seen who would ever actually tell a woman, you know what? You're good. Wait till you're 42.
00:08:20
Speaker 3: No, no. And in fact, my brother, who's a doctor, I remember when I started to get into my late 20s, he was like, I'm not trying to put pressure on you, but you should just know that I think he told me after age 27, your fertility rate starts to decline pretty rapidly. And while it's technically possible to get pregnant at a certain point in time after pregnancy, 40, 50, using your own egg, the chance of success is very, very rare. And I think what isn't talked about is that most women in advanced ages of late 40s, 50s, you don't have eggs that are viable. You end up having to use a donor egg in almost every circumstance.
00:08:58
Speaker 2: But that's not talked about.
00:08:59
Speaker 3: So there's a fantasy out there, I think, for women in their 20s who are worried about finding the right mate, who are trying to create careers for themselves and are saying to themselves, I can wait another 15, 20 years. And they might be able to, but they should also just understand that it's not guaranteed and there are risks associated with it.
00:09:17
Speaker 1: And that's a lot. I don't even know how expensive this is, but.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: The idea of freezing your eggs.
00:09:21
Speaker 1: Which a lot of women, and we'll get into some of the celebrities, at least I've done this, did do that exact thing. But robes, I did not realize this. This was fascinating to hear how women, older women, excuse what's the right way to put it? I sound offensive and everything.
00:09:36
Speaker 2: It doesn't offend me. Like, look, I'm an older woman.
00:09:38
Speaker 3: I'm not offended by it. That's all right. It's just the truth. It's the facts.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: But women who are 35, 40 plus, the rate at which they are now giving birth has gone off the charts. Robes, this is a thing. It can be said. It is a fact. More and more and more women are having kids in their 40s. This is a thing. This is a trend. This is real, and it is here. The thing that got me, Robes, that for the first time, the National Institutes of Health, they put their study out in 2023, so it's the latest year that we have. Actually, they put it out last year, but that's the latest year we have stats for. That year was the first one they have, Robes, on record in which the number of women giving birth over the age of 40 outpaced the number of teenage births we had in the country. My goodness. Hear that out. Robes, teen births, been focused on this for decades, obviously, and trying to get that down. But teen births represented 13% of all births in 1990. By 2023, only 4% of all births. Now, that helped out a lot. Greatly, obviously, in adjusting this. But this is the one that blew my mind. Fertility rates for women 35 to 39 in that same period went up 71 percent.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: My goodness. For women 40 to 44.
00:11:00
Speaker 1: Went up 127 percent. Robes, that is ginormous. There is a huge shift in the way we think about women having babies.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: And look, I'll be honest.
00:11:12
Speaker 3: I would have loved to have thought I could have had a baby in my 40s. I wouldn't have been able to because of my breast cancer, but I saw my friends do it.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: I saw them at 40, 41, 42. I have two friends who gave birth. I won't name them.
00:11:26
Speaker 3: They ended up using donor eggs, but 48 and 49. And they had healthy pregnancies. They just weren't able to use their own eggs, but they certainly carried the baby and had healthy children as a result. And that is remarkable, but it's expensive.
00:11:42
Speaker 2: It's time consuming.
00:11:43
Speaker 3: It's filled with oftentimes some loss because this is not a guaranteed situation.
00:11:49
Speaker 1: But it's also possible.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: But it's possible.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: That's the thing, right? It's now possible. So just go back a decade ago, most... births were to women between the ages of 25 and 29 that make about sense.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: Yeah that was 2012 yeah i had my first baby at 29 okay and granted i was um i guess i don't know and then my second was at 32 i had just turned 33 okay so 29.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: And 33 a decade later so that was in 2012 but a decade later most births were to women between the age of 30 and 44 30 and 34 30 and what i say 44 30 30 and 34 robes The stats bear this out. Women are waiting.
00:12:28
Speaker 3: Yes. And 35, anyone who's been pregnant knows that is considered the age at which if you're past 35, that's called a geriatric pregnancy.
00:12:37
Speaker 1: Those doctors will freak you out.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: I know. I remember I actually was so... I had Annalise when I, again, I was 32 when I got pregnant. I had just turned 33 when I gave birth to her. I remember thinking, oh, thank God I got in before 35. Like there was just this thing that was, I felt like there was this threshold over my head that I shouldn't wait until after 35. I definitely felt a, a time, uh, like a time bomb going off. But a lot of women would say that's, you know, that's unfair. Like you're, you're now, maybe you're rushing to be with the wrong mate or you're willing to Yes, have a child with someone you shouldn't have otherwise. Or, you know, you're derailing your career. I mean, there's all the amount of pressure that women feel if they know they want to be moms is pretty significant. And so I do think it's awesome that many women do have options. And I just think it needs to come with The fine print. Every woman needs to understand. We see these celebrity examples and yes, it is joyful and it's wonderful. Who doesn't celebrate seeing new life and just the hope that comes with it and the excitement that it's possible for women that it wouldn't have been possible for otherwise.
00:13:47
Speaker 2: All of that is good. And I do love it.
00:13:49
Speaker 3: It just, I do worry that sometimes it isn't provided with the proper context.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: Well, because the pictures are pretty, and that's the truth. And we're going to get into one here in just a sec, Rob. There was one person in particular that had 10 years. She ended up giving birth in her 50s, but it was a journey, she said, that started 10 years. They were trying for 10 years to do this in their family planning. So why is this happening? I guess it makes sense. You hit on some of the stuff, why it's different now, yes, or why women are waiting longer. Yes, there are different attitudes about career. There's different attitudes about dating, about marriage, about when to do all this stuff. And obviously we have these medical advancements. All that stuff is good. I haven't seen necessarily yet, Robes, we haven't seen any trends where there's a, I don't know, we're noticing something emerge like, oh my goodness, women are having babies older, so now this means blank, blank, and a blank. There doesn't seem to be a downside, if you will. There are challenges, but ultimately they go on and have babies and have families and Everything's fine to have a mom in her 40s when she's... Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker 3: Look, I think the downside, the upside is you get to have, you get to really cultivate your career and figure out who you are, and you might be a more patient mom, a more focused mom. You know, I do wish that I could have maybe even delayed it by a decade and been able to be more relaxed and more focused and less career-centered. That would have been maybe more beneficial to my kids.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:15:12
Speaker 1: We have options, baby.
00:15:13
Speaker 3: Yeah. But because not only is it my age, it's yeah, it's a lot of stuff, but it's all.
00:15:22
Speaker 2: Sorts of stuff.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:24
Speaker 3: But the point being is, I do think that the downside is that, yeah, you might not get to know your grandkids. You might not get to be around for some of life's later milestones that your children might wish you.
00:15:36
Speaker 2: Could be in. But look, with the good comes the bad. That's just a part of life.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: All right. Well, stay with us here, folks. A reminder, didn't realize the list was so long of celebrity women who have given birth in their early 40s, late 40s, even 50s.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: Stay here. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Yes, we're celebrating the news that Ciara, at the age of 40, yes, is pregnant with her fifth child. Congratulations to Ciara and Russell Wilson. But it definitely got us talking as we see more and more celebrities giving birth in their 40s and their 50s.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: We were actually still surprised.
00:16:23
Speaker 3: Some of these names and ages I don't think I was even aware of. The one I remember the most making the biggest headline at the time was Janet Jackson.
00:16:31
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: Because she was 50 years old, 2017. She was on the cover of People, maybe? But obviously stunningly beautiful and pregnant and had a healthy baby. And that was just like a shocker, honestly, to think that someone could give birth at the age of 50 to a healthy child.
00:16:50
Speaker 1: That's remarkable. She carried that baby. Yes, she carried that baby. Now, we should say, you were talking earlier as well, The doctors will tell you. There is a certain point, if you hear about a woman over the age of 45, whatever the number you use, but at some point you do not have, unless you use a donor egg or froze your eggs, You just can't.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: Yes, your eggs.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: Look, we're born as women with all the eggs we're going to have in our entire lifetime. And so I believe starting at a certain age, you just start to rapidly shed them. And the ones that do remain are the less viable ones, are the ones that are more likely to have chromosomal deficiencies, etc. So it gets a little scary about what your egg reserve might be like.
00:17:32
Speaker 2: But look....
00:17:34
Speaker 3: And obviously, there are plenty of ways for women to have children, just a little unconventional.
00:17:42
Speaker 1: Yes, and a lot of, and again, this list we're talking here, all of these folks gave birth. This was not an adoption situation.
00:17:48
Speaker 2: Or a surrogate situation.
00:17:50
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: Aubrey Plaza, did she, has she had that baby yet?
00:17:54
Speaker 2: Yes, she just had the baby.
00:17:55
Speaker 3: I actually have seen some paparazzi photos of her, unfortunately, trying to shield the baby from the photographers. But yes, she just had the baby not that long ago.
00:18:03
Speaker 2: Hilary Swank at the age of 48.
00:18:05
Speaker 1: I believe this is a frozen egg situation.
00:18:07
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: I believe it was. But yes, 48. That was a couple of years ago. I didn't remember Alanis Morissette.
00:18:14
Speaker 3: 45.
00:18:14
Speaker 2: Gave birth to her son.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: That was back in 2019.
00:18:18
Speaker 2: Bridget Nielsen. This one was shocking.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: This was the one I was talking about. She said she and her husband started at 42. thinking about this. And it took time. It took years and they stayed at it. She gave birth, frozen eggs. They were hers. 54 years old. Gave birth to a healthy baby.
00:18:36
Speaker 3: That is, I mean, and by the way, those 10 years, like that, that is a devotion to wanting a family of your own.
00:18:43
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: Rachel Weisz, um, 48 years old. I didn't realize she was that, um, that advanced in age. She always seems like a 32 year old to me, but yes, 48.
00:18:54
Speaker 1: Love that woman. And then she was married to James Bond. So this is like, I love this couple.
00:18:58
Speaker 2: Power couple.
00:18:59
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:18:59
Speaker 2: We've mentioned Janet Jackson.
00:19:00
Speaker 3: Laura Linney at 49 in 2014 had her child. We remember Kelly Preston at 48.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: What were the circumstances?
00:19:08
Speaker 3: So the reason behind this one, I recall, and I do believe she... And look, there's been plenty of folks who have tried to track down, we won't get into.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: It, where the egg came from. But she used a donor egg.
00:19:18
Speaker 3: But their son, her and John Travolta's son, Jet, wasn't that his name?
00:19:25
Speaker 2: He actually had this terrible accident. I believe he was 16 years old, fell in the shower and died. And so they were mourning the loss of him.
00:19:33
Speaker 3: They had another... little girl named Ella. And I remember she was born around the same time Ava was. So I always kind of kept up with them, you know, when you're pregnant at.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: The same time as someone else.
00:19:43
Speaker 3: But yeah, this was kind of them wanting to have a miracle baby and they did dealing with the loss of their son and they did um so yeah she did that at 48 holly hunter at 47 i didn't remember that one and gina davis 48 didn't remember that susan sarandon 46 didn't remember nancy grace 48 she had twins and she actually talked about having some life-threatening complications so um and gwen stefani Had her last one at 44.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: All impressive. It is.
00:20:14
Speaker 1: And they were all healthy. But all of them from reading this morning have a story, have some journey. Something was happening behind the scenes that got them to there. They just didn't wake up one day.
00:20:23
Speaker 3: Oh, my goodness.
00:20:23
Speaker 1: This is great. I'm pregnant. It was not that. So, Robes, it's... So, yes, you've brought me around to dealing with the hesitation I had over this. It is important. It is important to add the extra part and have this... And this still is celebratory. This still is a wonderful feat that we should be saying, great, women have more options now.
00:20:45
Speaker 3: Yes, and families have more options and women might feel less pressure.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Um, and I think it's.
00:20:50
Speaker 3: Just an individual choice of what you're willing to put your body through because you really do. If you want a baby at that age, oftentimes it does take some very active, uh, investment of time, money, your body dealing with heartbreak and loss, but hoping in the end that you do get to complete your family or at least grow your family in the way you want to do it. And I do think options are great just with, full information involved. I think, yeah, the celebrity stories are wonderful. But as you point out, there's oftentimes more to them than meets the eye.
00:21:23
Speaker 1: Congrats. Congrats, Sierra Russell Wilson. Looking forward to it. Of course, check out their photos. They had a joint Instagram post they put up and it's just perfect. It's perfect.
00:21:35
Speaker 2: It is.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Everything about it is perfect. But congrats to them. We appreciate you as always. Hope you're having a good, good, uh, Labor Day.
00:21:41
Speaker 2: Labor Day.
00:21:42
Speaker 1: Wherever you might be. But we appreciate you spending a little of your holiday here with us. I'm TJ. That's Robes. We'll talk soon.