About Beth K. Vogt 
Author of Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35.

Beth is spread all over the parenting spectrum as the happily exhausted mom of children ages 24, 21, 19, and 7. She’s experienced motherhood from labor right on up to the mother of the groom dance. Beth is the editor of MOPS’ leadership magazine, Connections, and has been published in Discipleship Journal, MomSense, Today’s Christian Woman, and Crosswalk.com. She recently spoke at the Hearts at Home National Conference on “How to Help Your Son Choose Purity Instead of Pornography.” 

Interview with Beth K. Vogt:

Beth, why did you write Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35?

My surprise pregnancy at 41 earned me the label of Advanced Maternal Age (AMA). At the time, I was the mom of three teenagers. I felt like my life was going in reverse and fast forward at the same time.

After my morning sickness ended—4 months later—I discovered I was a trendsetter! Late-in-life motherhood is the biggest change in motherhood in the past 12 years.

Thanks to my “caboose baby", Christa, I became an initially reluctant member of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers, International.) Ultimately, I pitched the idea of a book for late-in-life moms to MOPS because their goal is to meet the needs of every mother of preschoolers. My question to them was: What do you have to offer an older mom like me?

 You call yourself a “Mommy-Come-Lately”. Why?

The medical community calls moms over 35 “Advanced Maternal Age.” That’s just another way of saying I’m old! A friend of mine struggled with infertility for years and had her son when she was 46. A nurse called her an “elderly mother.” That’s just a wretched thing to say to a woman!

I thought, “Surely we can come up with something more encouraging then these labels.”

During a time when I was praying about writing the book, the phrase “Mommy-Come-Lately” came to mind. It’s a spin on the term “Johnny-Come-Lately.” A Johnny-Come-Lately is someone who comes to something later in life and is successful at it. So, put a little maternal spin on that, and you have a Mommy-Come-Lately: an older mom who successfully mothers her children.

What are some of the challenges older moms face?

The first thing a woman hears about is the medical challenges she’ll face. If a woman delays pregnancy until she is in her mid-30s, she increases her chances of infertility. Once she becomes pregnant, she has a higher risk of miscarriage, chromosomal abnormalities like Down syndrome, or developing high blood pressure or diabetes.

There are also emotional challenges for older moms. Even if you’ve chosen to become pregnant in your 30s or 40s, you still have to let go of the life you’ve lived for many years B.C. (Before Children.) And there is some grieving involved in that.

If you’re what I call a “repeater” mommy-come-lately like me, then there’s the emotional adjustment to becoming a mom again at a time in your life when you’re just starting to empty the nest.

What else will women find in Baby Changes Everything?

I have Cameo Appearances: interviews with lots of different mommies-(and daddies)-come-lately. I also have a chapter dedicated to caboose kids, where I give their perspective on life as the child of older parents. The book covers the medical, emotional and practical aspects of being a late-in-life mom—and I tried to do it with honesty and humor.

You consider having a child later-in-life a “family affair.”

Absolutely! I wasn’t the only one affected by my surprise pregnancy! My husband Rob was too—and so were our three older children. That’s why my book includes a chapter for dads (It Takes Two to Tango) and a chapter about developing relationships between the “caboose kiddo” and much older siblings (One for All—And All for the Little One).

Additional Information: Excerpt from Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35

The Mommy-Come-Lately Movement

Motherhood is experiencing an extreme makeover. Look in the mirrors of today’s moms and you see women in their thirties and forties—not just the twentysomethings of generations past. The dominant birth rate trend of the last decade reveals an increase in AMA moms (those aged thirty-five years or older.) For example, the 2002 birth rate

• was 31 percent higher than in 1990 for women thirty-five to thirty-nine years
• increased 51 percent from 1990 rates for women forty to forty-four years
• more than doubled from 1990 rates for women forty-five to forty-nine years

A more recent study from the National Center for Health Statistics stated that births to older women continued to increase from 2004 to 2005. During that time, the birth rate

• increased 2 percent for women thirty-five to thirty-nine
• increased 2 percent for women forty to forty-four
• increased slightly for women forty-five to forty-nine, the highest rate for this group since 1970
  (although this figure only reflects a small total of births)
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