A 2010 report by the Pew Research Center titled “The New Demography of American Motherhood” shows that today’s mother is older and more educated than the mothers of the past. Babies born to mothers over thirty-five now outnumber those born to teen moms, and the average age for first-time motherhood is twenty-five, with about one-third of first-time moms over thirty. The number of women who opt for childbearing between the ages of thirty-five and thirty-nine has increased by nearly 50 percent in the last twenty years, and by 80 percent for women aged forty to forty-four.
