Hello, and welcome to Five Things. I'm Dana Taylor, today is Sunday, July 30th, 2023.

Is there an ideal time in life to become a parent? A time when parenting is typically

easier, more well timed out, or just better for you emotionally, physically, or economically?

For some women, that time is at 40 and older. According to the US Census, that's a trend

that has been steadily building over the course of the past three decades. But what are the

factors you should weigh when making that critical family planning decision? Our guest, Emily

Oster, is a mother of two, a professor of economics at Brown University, and a New York Times

best-selling author on the topic of pregnancy and parenting. Her popular newsletter,

Parent Data, is for parents, for people who want to become parents, and anyone who likes to do their

research before making a decision. Emily joins us today to discuss parenting and what to factor in

when making the decision to become a parent at or after the age of 40. Emily, thank you for

joining me. Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here. So pregnancy in your 40s

is termed a geriatric pregnancy. That is not the most flattering term. I think we can agree on that.

A common theme that I've come across from women in that age group, though, is a feeling of

resentment about having to fight to simply enjoy their pregnancy and to not feel judged about it.

So specifically on that point, how do you advise women who are considering a pregnancy later in life?

One of the things that were geriatric is so loaded, and I think this is kind of the first thing

many women hear. And the first question I often get is what does the data say about the chance

that I can get pregnant? So even before I become the geriatric pregnancy, what's my possibility of

being in that group? And I think here for women who are over 40, there's positive news and there's

more complicated news, which is it definitely is possible to get pregnant over 40. Sometimes when

you get the impression that at 35 or 40, everything just shuts down and you definitely can't get

...