The age at which women start having babies has changed massively in recent decades.
Chances are, your mum had you in her twenties but more and more Irish women are now waiting until they’re 30, 40 or older to start a family.
That said, plenty of women across Europe are still having their first child in their twenties
The average age of first-time mums in Europe is 28.6, according to figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics.
We Irish ladies tend to wait a little longer to have babies, though.
Women here are an average age of 29.6 when they have their first child, an entire year older than the European average, according to OECD statistics for 2014.
That makes us some of the oldest first-time mamas in Europe, coming in behind Switzerland and Spain at an average of 30.6 and Italy at 30.7.
Stats like this tend to cause a bit of panic (older mums are a little stigmatised) but we’re not too fussed.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that Irish women are waiting to have babies – all it means is that we’ve better access to contraception and are focussing on our careers and making the most of our time before kids come into the picture.
We also reckon we’re possibly more prepared to be mums with a bit of life experience under our belts and having had a few years to be selfish.
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