This week we are breaking down the terminology stigma around “AMA” or advanced maternal age, exploring the nuances of risk management in pregnancies over the age of 35, & highlighting the benefits that should be discussed in any conversation around age & family planning.
Ray Rachlin of Refuge Midwifery shares how their personal practice centers patient autonomy through fertility support, pregnancy monitoring, & birth care for this population, how they discuss relative risk surrounding age with their otherwise low-risk clientele, and how we can change the narrative around pregnancies over the age of 35.
Ray Rachlin, CPM, CLC 
Maggie Runyon, MSN, RNC-OB
Our society has a lot of opinions on who, & when, & how babies should come into this world. Deeply ingrained is this belief that people pursuing pregnancy over the age of 35 will struggle to become pregnant, have high-risk pregnancies, and experience complications as a result of their age. However…that is, of course, not true for many folks over the age of 35, and we could use to be more cognizant of this in our care planning with these clients.
In this episode we’ve framed the conversation around how can we hold awareness of this one variable, age, without losing sight of all the other characteristics & personal desires of the birthing person.
For an excellent in-depth breakdown of the research evidence surrounding pregnancies over the age of 35, check out the Evidence Based Birth article by Dr Rebecca Dekker, Dr. Mimi Niles, & Dr Alicia Breakey. You can see more about the ARRIVE trial and read up on its effects on practice by Evidence Based Birth and the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists.
Benefits of pregnancies over age 35 are explored in several studies and you can read more about it by Myrskyla, Sun, & Extend Fertility.
Check out this episode’s full transcript or tune in wherever you enjoy podcasts.
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Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Gonna Start” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)