The New Republic has a fantastic article by Judith Shulevitz about the greying of American parents. Well-educated, white women in the Northeast (hey, that's me!) are much more likely to put off having childbirth until after aged 30 than other groups and over time, and a significant number of women put off stroller pushing until their 40's. 

What does it all mean? Well, children from older dads are more likely to have an autistic spectrum disorder. We have no idea of the long term health risks of infertility treatments. There's the embarrassment of being confused as the grandmother as your child's wedding. 

I had Jonah when I was 34 and Ian when I was 37. Before that, we were too poor and too busy working towards the PhDs to consider having kids. And none of our friends were doing it. We were all working hard and drinking until wee hours of the night and we had no interest in leaving the urban tribe. 

We could have started earlier. I met Steve when I was 30, and we almost instantly knew that we were going to get married. We could have started our family at 31, instead of 34, and then not paused for three years between kids. Truthfully, I wish we had more kids. I really like the ones that we made, and I think we could have made another good one or two.  But it was not in the cards for us. It is partially because of stupid career decisions and lifestyle choices that don't matter to me anymore. 

Alison Benedikt in Slate has similar regrets. 

What can be done? Shulevitz isn't sure about a specific policy, but ends with this thought:

It won’t be easy to make the world more baby-friendly, but if we were to try, we’d have to restructure the professions so that the most intensely competitive stage of a career doesn’t occur right at the moment when couples should be lavishing attention on infants. We’d have to stop thinking of work-life balance as a women’s problem, and reframe it as a basic human right. Changes like these are going to be a long time coming, but I can’t help hoping they happen before my children confront the Hobson’s choices that made me wait so long to have them.