In 1986 fewer than one in 10 babies in the province were born to women over 35. These days, almost one quarter of all births are from that cohort and the number is still rising.
There can be health consequences for both mother and child for pregnancies when a woman is 35-plus but the cultural and social implications are even more significant.
Thanks to easy access to birth control, women have been in direct control of their sexuality and their reproductive organs for the last 50 years. "The Pill" gave women the power to not only have sex when they want, but to have children on their own timetable or - gasp! - not at all.
Even for a modern woman, the social pressure to have children, particularly if that woman is in a stable heterosexual relationship, is daunting. It doesn't just come from overly anxious older women eager for their sons and daughters to deliver grandbabies. There remains a not-so-subtle directive that a girl doesn't become a woman until she becomes a mom.
For women, there remains a common belief that children make them complete, makes them part of a family, even though psychologists who study happiness and healthy relationships can stack up studies that show that nothing, not even money, adds stress and reduces happiness in a relationship like having kids.
Becoming a parent today is on a timetable of adulthood, just one box in a checklist of accessories to accumulate, like getting married, buying a car and a house, getting promoted, learning to play golf and going to Vegas or Mexico for a holiday.
For those who move into their 40s without children, they are greeted with pity or disdain.
"Oh," the eyebrow goes up. "You don't have kids?"
You are damaged goods, either because you are physically unable to create your own progeny or you are so hopelessly self-absorbed as to reject your primary biological duty.
Of course, the pressure doesn't go away just because women have children. Some would argue it's worse now than it ever has been.
Motherhood remains the great dividing issue among feminists because the very act of pregnancy can be construed as a capitulation to patriarchy ("you finally gave in to the man") or as the most physical expression of feminine power and identity possible. A woman devoting herself to her children in the Western world in 2012 is either a slave or a hero.
Motherhood's social evolution over the last 50 years runs parallel to the evolution of work. There was a time when both raising kids and having a job were what responsible adults did to provide for themselves and their family.
Not anymore.
Both work and motherhood have been deeply romanticized. As organized religion has waned, work and motherhood are now areas where women (and men) are told to find spiritual and emotional fulfillment. Adults can't have jobs, they must have careers. Their work must be socially significant and emotionally gratifying in some way.
Motherhood is also now invested (or infected) with meaning imposed by society. Basic parenting, from breast feeding to playing, are now political acts. A woman who bottle feeds, instead of breast feeding, is uncaring and perhaps abusive, even though the scientific data shows no significant difference to a baby's emotional and physical growth. Kids don't play any more, they socialize on "play dates," not because it's fun but because it enhances their development.
Work and motherhood has brought both satisfaction and self-loathing to the modern woman. Even the mature 35-plus first-time mother feels the acute social pressure to be the mom who can have it all, the powerhouse career woman by day, the tender and devoted mother on the evenings and weekends. Women unable to maintain that balance between Martha Stewart and Hillary Clinton are perceived as weak.
Postponing motherhood until 35 or older doesn't reduce those expectations. If anything, it raises them because a young mother can claim ignorance. A "geriatric mom" should know how to be a "proper" mom by now.
Regardless of the age of the woman, motherhood remains a life journey with no owners manual, an experience loaded with risk and reward.
-- Managing Editor Neil Godbout
