Good news for women waiting until their 30s to have kids

Are you waiting until your 30s to have kids? You’re in luck: Kids are smarter when born to older moms. Conventional wisdom has it that it’s vastly better (for mom and baby) to have kids in your mid-to-late 20s than in your mid-to-late 30s. New research suggests that may not be the case: “Children born to the 35- to 39-year-olds did significantly better on cognitive testing than the children born to the younger mothers,” writes Peri Klass, an MD and one of the best health writers in the United States since the 1990s. What’s the catch? “Nowadays children of older mothers have, on average, better outcomes because of the characteristics of women who tend to have children at older ages.” They take better care of their health before and during pregnancy, tend not to be smokers are more likely to breastfeed. Read “Good News for Older Mothers.”