Meryl Streep had her last child when she was in her 40's too.

I'm in my late-20s and single, so I like to see this kind of list! It gives me hope that I will have time to have a kid, and maybe even find a mate, eventually.

wasn't Geena Davis around 46 when she had her first child and 48 when she gave birth to her twins?

Or is this for women over 40 who recently had babies?

ergh I can be sooo dumb sometimes i totally missed the pre 2007 babies somehow- I'm really tired so I blame lack of sleep

Has Helena Bonham Carter named her daughter yet?

I like lists like this too :) Slows down my clock a bit :)

I agree with Nona and Brannon that this list is somewhat heartening. But, I also wonder how many of the women on this list went through some type of fertility treatment. I know that most feel that these treatments are a very private matter, but as a woman who is considering fertility treatments myself I want to know who has done what and how it worked for them. Also, I think a lot of celebrities are able to use treatments that mere mortals often cannot afford because they are generally not covered by health insurance.

9 sets of twins in that list!!!

No doubt it's easier when your rich to have babies later, because you have the money to get treatment. But I also heard right before menopause, your more prone to get pregnant too because your hormones are everywhere, and after 35 your more prone to twins too.

I had my second with 40, 8 years after my first one. And we didn't even try! ;)

Jane Seymour's twins are not identical; they are fraternal, the common type of twins resulting from IVF treatment, which Jane underwent to conceive her boys. She relates all the details surrounding their birth in her book "Two At A Time".

oh i pray i am just as lucky!

good points, edna. I guess what I can hope for is that it will get cheaper or more accessible by the time I'm 40... That doesn't help you or anyone else right now, though. :(

Wow, lotsa babies! I agree with edna regarding whether these were easy conceptions. While it is a personal thing, surely having celebrity mums over 40 be outspoken about whether this was a natural or "assisted" (i.e., fertility drugs, IVF, surrogacy, etc.) would go a long way into reassuring non-celebrity women whether they still have hope getting pregnant after the age of 40, although I am sure most of them don't want to be 70 like that woman in India!

Interesting list, gives me hope for the future too! lol!

My mom was 39.5 when she had her fourth child, my sister. Interestingly she got pregnant only 4 months after a miscarriage from another pregnancy that was also a surprise.

Anyway, of the celebrity list, I was probably most surprsed at Nancy Grace having twins at 48 yrs old, but then again I guess she wasn't the only celeb to do that.

Others that weren't on your list, how old was Bette Midler when she had her daughter? (I think Bette's about the same age as my mom and her daughter is close to my sister's age...born in 1986?) Or Goldie Hawn when she had her youngest son? Or Annette Bening when she had most of her children?

What I can't believe is that we still don't know what Helena Bonham Carter, Holly Hunter and Helen Fielding named their kids!

I'm a 27 year old mom with my 2nd on the way and I don't like seeing this! Let's not get too excited... Hollywood makes it seem so easy and safe to have babies in your 40's, but the truth is, it's not ideal for YOUR BABY's health and should be a last resort. There are a lot of risks for the mother as well, and us "average chicks" probably can't afford the treatments these celebrities undergo.

half those baby were convived via fecondation in vitro. What you probably sould motion is that this kind of medecin cost a lot of money. For the women who have the money it's great, they can wait, but for those who don't well, this list can make them think that they have all the time they need and that having a baby in your late 40's is possible. But it's not. My dad had me when he was 45( my mom was 31 so it's not really the same but still). He is now 62 and is soon going to stop his work. I can't imagine having my dad around all the time while some of my friends's grandparents still work! Having a kid that late is just selfish. You really want to be 70 when your kid is 20?!
Jane seymour had a twins when she was almost 45 but she had her daughter when she was 30 and her son a couple of years later, so it's not the same. She remarried and wanted another kid, she had twins.

I'm 41 years old, and 29 weeks pregnant with my first child. I got pregnant the first month we tried. Half of women my age can get pregnant with no assistance. Yes, there are higher risks of conditions like Downs, but they're still just risks. As long as you are in good health, there's nothing wrong with having a child past 35 or even 40. And if you have difficulty getting pregnant, reproductive technologies are getting better and better. I don't think it's a great idea to put off childbearing if you don't have a good reason, but I don't think there are many women who do. Most older mothers become so because of reasons like mine--I didn't meet The One until a month before my 38th birthday, and I never wanted to be a single mother. And I'm lucky that I turned out to be still very fertile. From what I've read, if your mother went through menopause late, it's likely that you will also, and it's also likely that you will remain fertile longer. My mom didn't start menopause until she was 57.

So, if you want to be a mother someday and it's not a good time now, be heartened! It can and does happen for women in their late 30s and 40s, and not just to celebrities. I have a friend who recently had her first baby at age 44, using an egg donor. He's a wonderful, sweet child. Yes, it was expensive, but she thinks it's the best money she ever spent.

I had never heard that half of women over 40 could get pregnant with no assistance, but I have read that after 40 your chance of getting pregnant spontaneously is half what it was at 20. The fact is that after 35 you are considered "advanced maternal age" and your fertility drops significantly. I know several women that had babies in their early forties, some with help, some without. But I would guess that most of the women on this list had some kind of help.

Pencils -

I've seen you post that stat before, and that is nowhere near the math I am familiar with. A link from an expert who appeared on the Oprah show, with quote:

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020501_c.jhtml

"She also says that by the time a woman is 42 years old, ninety percent of her eggs are abnormal, and there is only an 8 percent chance of having a baby without donor eggs."

Now maybe that's too dire, but there's no way I'm believing that half of all 41-year-old women can get pregnant without intervention. You'd be lucky to get to that figure with use of fertility drugs and mothers'-eggs IVF. Where did you get your info that placed the number so high?

More info:

http://infertility.about.com/od/causesofinfertility/a/pregnantafter35.htm

I'm glad that you personally had such an easy time, but I think it's a disservice to women to make it seem more likely than the data truly shows it to be.

90% of eggs are abnormal at 42. I have a hard time believing that as well. I've seen so many women after age 40 get pregnant - by accident no less. I'm not saying that it's easy, but criticizing women that have babies after 40 by saying it should be a last resort? That's horrible.

I was 2 days away from my 40th birthday when I gave birth to my first son (no problem getting pregnant) and I was 43 just 4 days when I gave birth to my second son (no problems getting pregnant again). I know a lot of women who have had trouble getting pregnant so I consider us fortunate.

Here's something that is interesting. I have been told by my doctor that my chances of having a child with a genetic abnormality are just as good as a 20 year-old. Reason being (and I hope I explain this correctly)is that my eggs were made when I was in my own mother's womb so if there were any genetic abnormalities they would have been there since then. Some other things that can cause other abnormalities is that my eggs are now over 40 years old.

i am 42 and am currently pregnant with number 2, i already have a daughter who is 7. We didnt try and didnt use any other costly method, it all happened naturally. To the 27 year old, there have been many cases of downs syndrome in the 20 somethings as they are hardly ever recommended to do any further testing... i have known many women under 30 who have had many problems conceiving...so please dont judge anyone who is blessed to be pregnant naturally or other wise no matter how old they are!!