Hillary Swanks pregnancy raises discussions of middle-aged maternity

All right, we've got a bit of a health watch here for you tonight. You're looking at actress Hilary Swank, who is 52 years old, and she is now expecting her third child here with her husband, Philip. They had twins three years ago, and baby number three is due in December. Hilary Swank says having kids later in life, quote, just worked out for me because she can be more present with her kids. Congratulations, first and foremost. We certainly wish her for a very healthy pregnancy moving on. Joining us now to talk more about the risks that may be associated with having a child this late in life is Dr. Kelly Burroughs. She is an OBGYN with UT Health Houston. Thank you so much, doctor, for joining us. Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for the opportunity to join you. Okay, so let's kind of jump in and talk about being pregnant in your 50s. How difficult is it and what are some of the issues a woman might encounter during that pregnancy? So I think there are definitely benefits to having children during your wisdom years. that is what I like to refer to it as. You definitely feel more established. You might have some more patience. But from a medical standpoint, there are some additional risks that can be involved. So one is gestational diabetes. That is when you actually develop diabetes during your pregnancy. Also high blood pressure. We also refer to that as preeclampsia. increased risk of preterm labor, there can be risk of low birth weight of the actual neonate, increased risk of hemorrhage or bleeding after delivery, and then also increased risk of postpartum depression. And because of all of those things you just mentioned, is it recommended for a patient to see their OBGYN more frequently or more often so that way they can make sure that they're connected and know exactly what's happening with their body? That's a really good question. So for our women who are over the age of 50, typically they are seen by their general obstetrician gynecologist, but in conjunction with co-management with maternal fetal medicine, which are doctors that specialize in high-risk pregnancies. So for our ladies who have or do have the opportunity to have children later than expected, then we do recommend that they actually have co-management with their general OBGYN, but then also a specialist. Yeah, and then after the child is here, healthy and doing great, for a mom going through postpartum, does it have, being that you're in your 50s, does postpartum, is it harder in your 50s? Is it easier to manage, or does it play a role at all? So I think it's just an increased risk, and that is just because you already are so exhausted after having a child, just trying to make that adjustment. Sometimes there can be additional complications from a physical standpoint. after your 50s like high blood pressure diabetes just the fatigue that is associated with it you can also have difficulty with breastfeeding as you gain wisdom or get older so sometimes that is also contributing to the emotional distress when you are unable to breastfeed so patients who are over 50 they can still have a wonderful pregnancy they can still have a wonderful recovery But we just want them to be aware of the increased risk so that if they see those warning signs, that they are more proactive about seeing their physician. Yeah, really quickly, last question. I want to talk about fertility for a woman in her 50s. What are the avenues typically used to get pregnant in your 50s? So that's a really good question. So spontaneous pregnancies, natural pregnancies for women after the age of 50 are actually pretty rare. They're about 0.01% in the U.S. of total pregnancies, so that's about 1 in 10,000. So out of 10,000 women, one will be over the age of 50 with a spontaneous pregnancy. Most women over the age of 50, they have used assisted reproductive technology, meaning in vitro fertilization, where there is fertilization of an egg outside of the womb. and then that embryo is re-implanted inside the uterus and so that's the most common avenue a woman might pursue in order to successfully have a pregnancy in her 50s other avenues you may use your own eggs that's rare after the age of 50 so many women actually consider using donor eggs meaning that there are women who have donated their eggs and other women can actually use them in order to conceive. And so those would be the options for most of our women beyond the age of 50. Dr. Kelly Burroughs, thank you so much. Great conversation. Come on back. Let's do it again next time, okay? I enjoyed that. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Have a great day. You too.