Photo: Flickr

The two major hospitals in the Kootenay region maintained relatively stable birth numbers, with a noticeable uptick of 7.4 per cent recorded from 2023 to 2024.

It used to be seen as unusual, even taboo, to have a child in your mid to late thirties, but cultural and economic shifts are making it become the norm.

Rhonda Belczyk is a social worker and a human services instructor at Selkirk College. She said that the cost of living and financial pressures play a huge role in the trend of people choosing to have children later in life.

“Some couples have chosen to have fewer children, postpone having children, or not have children at all because it’s too much of a strain."

A Statistics Canada study shows that Canada has changed from a high fertility society, where women had children at younger ages, to a low fertility society where women are having fewer children overall at increasingly older ages.

Once upon a time, when it was uncommon to be 35 years and older to have your first child, today it’s more common than ever.

According to Interior Health (IH), B.C. has the highest rate of mothers over the age of 35 in Canada. The median age of women having children in 1910 was 21, now it’s about 27 years old.

The average age of women giving birth in B.C. is around 32 years, a number that has been steadily increasing over time. Twenty six per cent of women giving birth in the province are now over the age of 35.

B.C. has also seen a notable drop in birth rates, which stooped to a record low of one child per woman in 2023, one of the lowest rates in the country.

The two major hospitals in the Kootenay region's birth numbers have stayed relatively stable though, with a noticeable uptick of 7.4 per cent recorded from 2023 to 2024.

Photo: Interior Health

A chart showing the number of recorded births at KBRH in Trail and KLH in Nelson from 2015-2024

Not only is having a baby expensive, but paying for childcare also takes a huge toll on families' financial stability.

The Kootenay region is also facing significant childcare shortages and a lack of qualified childcare workers. A December 2024 study showed that the Kootenay region has the poorest access to childcare services in the province, with only about 4,000 licensed childcare spots for approximately 22,000 children aged 12 or under.

Belczyk also referred to a concept that is referred to as the “sandwich generation,” where women and men are caught in the middle between caring for both their children and aging parents.

Thanks to the contribution of previous generations, women have more autonomy over their lives and finances.

Building a career and achieving some level of financial stability before having kids has become more important to some than adhering to what used to be the social norm.

There has also been a shift in gender roles when it comes to child rearing. Men have become more involved in children's lives. However, women still disproportionately carry the brunt of childbearing responsibilities.

In part due to people opting to have children at older ages, pregnancies are often planned and well supported.

“The availability of contraception…freed many women from the choice to have sex, freed them from the risk of getting pregnant and having an unplanned pregnancy,” said Shiraz Moola, a Nelson-based obstetrician and gynecologist.

This can also lower the risk of pregnancy complications and genetic abnormalities, although complications that can come with pregnancy are potentially higher in women over the age of 35.

"The risks of preterm delivery, gestational diabetes, and hypertension in pregnancy are higher,” he said.

The simple explanation for these circumstances could be that people are getting old enough to develop health problems that can complicate pregnancies. However, the vast majority of women who are 35 years and older do end up delivering healthy and safe pregnancies.

Moola agreed that there has been an increase with some young women abstaining from having children altogether, freezing their eggs, or undergoing tubal ligation (tubes tied).

Although the art of the technology that allows women to preserve their eggs for years is becoming increasingly robust, the procedure still costs a significant amount of money.

Moola added that women who want to have kids shouldn't wait too long, as it becomes more difficult to get pregnant with age, and the viability of frozen eggs could decrease with time, although it's not improbable. The optimal time to freeze your eggs is typically between the ages of 25 and 35.

Moola said that he expects these trends to continue if there aren't improvements made to child and healthcare resources.

“I think support for women and children is lacking, in general, across our society, full stop.. But oftentimes less so in pregnancy.”