Do very many women get pregnant naturally past 40?

[specialmom]

Do you know any women who got pregnant naturally after the age of 40?  I know it gets harder but does it always take intervention or can natural happen?  Tips?

[Autismstepmum]

My old boss and got re-married. Never thought it was possible. She was 43 and it was the old fashioned way!

[scaredmommy42]

I’m 42 with one ovary and one tube and got pregnant naturally and have extreme history of endometriosis. Anything is possible.

[specialmom]

That's right!  How old is your little one now?  

[specialmom]

how are things scaredmommy42?  When did you have your baby??  

[AnnieBrooke]

It isn't unheard of at all, though the odds of genetic damage for the child do go up after 40. My neighbor got pregnant naturally when she was 40. She had already had seven children (I hear that having a lot of kids can push a woman's fertility out in terms of her age).  I had my son when I was well past 40 (I used a donor egg, so it's not a parallel situation) and when I was at the hospital, they were all talking about a woman from Rwanda who came in to have something like her 12th child, and she was 56.

[specialmom]

Wowza! 56!!  That's got to be unusual to not have had any fertility and get pregnant at 56!  But I get the impression that having lots of kids is like a fertility boost in itself.  My sister had her third child unexpectedly at 41.  But first time babies I think must be harder to conceive without intervention after 40 based on my circle of people who tried.  It's interesting to me how it all works.  Life isn't fair that we do really seem to have a clock ticking as women.  Then you have Richard Gere having a baby at 70!