Maybe later, baby

孩子，再等等

Why the middle-aged are replacing teenagers in maternity wards

为什么中年妇女正在取代年轻一代成为产房主力军？

maternity ward/产科病房

The conception rate is rising for women over 40, even as it crashes among under-18s

40岁以上女性的怀孕率正在上升，而18岁以下女性的怀孕率却在下降

Apr 17th 2019

IN HER 20S, Claire Fenelon was much too busy to have children. After going to university as a mature student, she spent a year in Australia then a few months in France, picking up the language. “I didn’t want to feel I was missing out,” she says. But by the time she was ready to settle down, she struggled to find the right man. At 39, she froze her eggs. Eight years later and still lacking a partner, she decided to “go solo”, giving birth to a son with the help of a sperm donor. “I was desperate to have kids,” she says. “But I didn’t want to have them with the wrong person.”

在她20多岁的时候，Claire Fenelon因为繁忙而无空生孩子。作为一名超龄生进入大学后，她在澳大利亚待了一年，然后在法国待了几个月，学习语言。她说:“我不想感觉自己被遗漏了。”但当她准备安定下来的时候，却很难找到合适的男人。39岁时，她把她的卵子冷冻起来。八年后，仍然没有伴侣的她决定“自己生一个”，在捐精者的帮助下生下了一个儿子。“我非常想要孩子，”她说。“但我不想让他们（自己的孩子）和不合适的人在一起。”

词汇

Sperm/精///子

Ms Fenelon belongs to a growing cohort of middle-aged women on maternity wards. As in other rich countries, the fertility rate in England and Wales is dwindling. But among women aged 40 and over the conception rate is rising. It jumped by 2.6% in 2017 and has more than doubled since 1990, according to statistics published on April 15th.

Fenelon女士是产房里越来越多的中年女性大军中的一员。和其他富裕国家一样，英格兰和威尔士的生育率正在下降。但在40岁以上的女性中，怀孕率正在上升。据4月15日公布的统计数据显示，中年女性的怀孕了到2017年已经跃升到了2.6%，根据4月15日的公布的调查数据，这一数值是自1990年来所记录的数值的一倍多。

Cohort/一群；步兵大队；支持者；同生群

Dwindling/减少

Meanwhile, at the other end of the age spectrum, an even starker change is afoot. The official figures chart the tenth consecutive annual fall in the rate of teenage pregnancies. Since 2007 the conception rate for 15- to 17-year-old girls has dived by 57%. The conception rates of the youngest and oldest mothers are now close to converging (see chart). Middle-aged maternity may soon be more common than teenage pregnancy.

与此同时，在年龄谱的另一端，一个更明显的变化正在发生。官方数据显示，少女怀孕率连续10年下降。自2007年以来，15至17岁女孩的怀孕率下降了57%。现在，年龄最小的母亲和年龄最大的母亲的怀孕率接近于一致(见图表)。中年孕妇可能很快就会比少女怀孕更为普遍。

词汇

Spectrum/光谱；频谱；范围；余象

Stark/完全的；荒凉的；刻板的；

Afoot/在进行中的；

Consecutive/连贯的；连续不断的

Converging/聚合，集中于一点

Advances in health care help to explain the convergence. Although assisted conception accounts for only a small proportion of pregnancies, it is growing more popular and more successful. Between 1991 and 2016, birth rates from in vitro fertilisation treatment increased by more than 85%. In 2016 more than 20,000 babies were born following IVF (out of a total of 696,000 births that year). About three-fifths of women who use it are 35 or over. Demand is likely to increase as women learn of others whose treatment has been successful. Ms Fenelon was inspired by a magazine article about egg-freezing.

医疗保健的发展有助于解释这种怀孕率逐渐趋于一致现象。虽然辅助受孕只占怀孕的一小部分，但它越来越受欢迎，也越来越成功。从1991年到2016年，体外受精治疗的出生率增长了85%以上。2016年，2万多名婴儿通过体外受精出生(当年共有69.6万名婴儿出生)。借此生孩子的女性，约有五分之三年龄在35岁以上。随着女性了解到其他体外受精成功得子的事例，需求可能会增加。Fenelon女士的启发（冷冻卵子）来自杂志上一篇关于冷冻卵子的文章。

词汇

in vitro fertilization/体外授精；试管内授精