How many females have gotten pregnant in their 40’s. 50’s?
What are the odds of getting pregnant (without special help) at those ages? What are the odds of having a successful delivery?
Well, there’s this Italian doctor who successfully implanted embryos in the womb of women in their 60s (caused quite a lot of ethical debates at the time). They all carried to term without problem.
I don’t know if he’s still doing it.
It’ll depend on a lot of factors. After age 40, fertility tends to decrease but there’s no shortage of ‘suprise’ babies having been conceived many years after a woman thinks she’s finished her family-making.
During menopause it becomes even less likely, but again, there’s enough anecdotal evidence around to prove that ‘unlikely’ does not equal impossible.
The incidence of some abnormalities (such as Downs Syndrome) do tend to increase with the age of the mother.
Pregnancy itself should technically be no more difficult for an older woman than a younger one (in the absence of other medical problems), and likewise the delivery should bring up no greater issues either.
How many women in their 40’s and 50’s have gotten pregnant? I imagine many thousands every year. 
I don’t know what the odds were but I managed it (in my 40s). My doctor told me that in the 40s was the second most common age for surprise pregnancies, with the first being late teens. This, she said, was owing to premenopausal hormone fluctuations. You think you’re safe, because you’re old and you didn’t have a period last month, and then you get an estrogen spike, and surprise!
There are a couple of birth defects that are more likely the older the mom is, such as Down’s syndrome, but there are tests for them. My doctor also suspected that older mothers have a higher percentage of breech deliveries. At any rate they apparently have a higher rate of C-sections. But with modern medicine, breech and C-section (as a result of breech and otherwise) are mostly successful deliveries.
(It’s when the offspring gets to be teenagers…and you’re in your 60s…that things go to hell.)
I would bet that the whole c-section thing is a <i know there is a word for it but I cant think of the damned word> self fulfilling thingy, you know. The doc knows that there is a possibility of a problem because lots of older moms get c-section, so he does a c-section so obviously because she is older she had a c-section because she might have had problems. You could also put it down to the prevalence of induced labor to pop the kid out to the doctors convenience triggering some sort of problem that necessitates a c-section.
I am assuming the OP is talking about FIRST pregnancies. My mum was 45 when I was born, but she had a a few children before. The one prior to me was when she was 35.
She said, that I was the easiest of all her pregnancies. She said she had no issues, with any part of the pregnancy and the delivery was, as she termed it, one push and that was it.
Very easy.
Now as I said, I’m sure there is a difference for FIRST pregnancies after 40 and just other pregnancies after 40
The odds of getting pregnant without assistance drop significantly after a woman turns 40. There is also a much higher risk of first-trimester miscarriage after 40.
True, but that’s not exactly what the OP asked, as I understand it. Even though the odds are lower, there are still thousands of women in their 40s who get pregnant and give birth every year. Just a quick glance at this chart will show that:
ETA: If it wasn’t clear, that chart shows the number of births in the U.S.
I was responding directly to the OP’s last two questions. I do not have cites at hand, but my answers are based on having seen citations for this information before.
No, I didn’t mean first pregnancies. is there a difference?
Delivered my first child a week before my 46th birthday. He is now a healthy 4 month old. I was told I was unable to conceive and it was true throughout my 20’s and 30’s and then…SURPRISE!!!