A new study has put forward a 9-year ideal time period.
When it comes to the best age for having children, there is a nine-year Goldilocks zone for women.
That’s the conclusion of a study of more than 31,000 births, which showed that women aged 23 to 32 had the lowest risk of birth defects.
Teenage moms and women in their early twenties were more likely to give birth to children with defects to the central nervous system, affecting things like brain and spine development, while mature pregnancies were associated most closely with deformities of the head, neck, eyes, and ears.
Young mothers are often unprepared for pregnancy and must contend with more unhealthy lifestyle factors such as drug and alcohol use, the researchers said.
Older women have been exposed to environmental stressors such as air pollution for longer, which the team believes may contribute to their risk of different birth defects