BBC Sounds – The Global Story with Katya Addler, Stephanie Hegarty & Professor Joyce Harper
The BBC’s Global Story offers a panoramic view into the diverse and compelling narratives shaping our world today. It aims to connect audiences with the human experiences and significant events across the globe, through in-depth storytelling and analysis. For more detailed information, you can visit the BBC’s official website.
Are you ever too old to have a baby?
In countries across the world women are deciding to delay motherhood. Increased access to education, more career opportunities and less financial stability means that more and more women are having children later in life. But fewer babies now, could mean more economic pressures on the rest of us in the future. We explore this complex topic with the BBC’s population correspondent Stephanie Hegarty and Joyce Harper, professor of reproductive science at University College London.
The Global Story brings trusted insights from BBC experts around the world, with Katya Adler. We need you to help us understand and tell The Global Story. Email ideas and thoughts to theglobalstory@bbc.com. You can also message or leave a voice note on WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.
Today’s podcast was made by Alice Aylett Roberts, Beth Timmins and Miriam Quayyum. The technical producers were Mike Regaard and Hannah Montgomery. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
Intro
Hello. I’m Katya Adler from the BBC World Service. This is the Global Story. Monday to Friday, we focus on one story in detail. With the help of the BBC’s best journalists around the world. Women are having fewer babies, and mothers are getting older and older. More women are having children in their forties, fifties and even in their sixties and seventies.
Today we’re asking why are women choosing to have babies later in life and what are the consequences for all of us?
With me today is the BBC’s population correspondent Stephanie Hegarty. And also Professor Joyce Harper. She heads up the Reproductive Science and Society Group at UCL’s Institute for Women’s Health. She’s also a regular contributor to the BBC on topics about fertility.
Katya Adler – So let’s start, since we’re talking about older mums, I think we’re all older mums here.
I mean, I had my first child at 36 and my third at 42 and I was half laughing and half horrified at being referred to already with my first child as a geriatric mum.
Stephanie Hegarty – You know what? I was delighted that, that never I had my first child last year, so 37, nearly 38. And I was delighted that that never came up because I scoured the documents I was given to see if I was being referred to as a geriatric mother.
Professor Joyce Harper – I think it might have changed recently by my first 39, so no one said it to me. But then I’m in the field, so I don’t think that it did say that.
Katya Adler – They were scared of you?
Professor Joyce Harper – I think so.
Katya Adler – Stephanie, we’ve introduced as the BBC’s population correspondent, amazing that the BBC BBC’s decided to have somebody dedicated in their job entirely to to population.
Stephanie Hegarty – Yeah, I think the thinking was that it affects so many of the stories that have been really important over the last decade as far as migration, you know, the migrant crisis, demographic changes becoming such a talking point, especially in East Asia, where we’re talking about population decline and then population growth in Africa, where I used to report from and I’m familiar with…
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