By Val Willingham
CNN Medical Producer

I’m not wild about babies. Don’t get me wrong - it’s not that I dislike them - I’m just not like a lot of my female friends who oooh and ahhh every time an infant enters the room. But I wanted to be a mom, so in my early 30s I did have a child. A beautiful little girl, who, even at the age of 21, still is my baby. My husband and I wanted our daughter. She was planned. We started thinking about having a child in September 1986. She was born in July 1987. We were blessed, and if you look at statistics, we also were lucky.

According to the American Fertility Association more than 15 percent of couples in the U.S. have difficulty conceiving a child. Many people are delaying having children - about 20 percent of women in the United States now have their first child after age 35. And as we age, it becomes more and more difficult to conceive. According to Dr. Robert Stillman, director of the Shady Grove Fertility Reproductive Science Center in Rockville, Maryland, “It’s just the natural aging process, and women can make that worse by smoking, alcohol abuse, excessive weights — both high and low.”

In her 30s and 40s, a female’s reproductive cycle begins to change. As a woman ages, her eggs are more likely to develop abnormalities The probability of having a baby drops between 3 and 5 percent per year after the age of 30, a rate that can be even higher after 40. In fact a woman in her 40s faces a 50 percent risk of suffering from a miscarriage, and there can be other problems. “As women age, they can end up with uterine problems, such as fibroid tumors, ovarian cysts or growths endometriosis,” Stillman adds. Many couples turn to expensive, state-of-the-art procedures such as in-vitro fertilization in order to have children.

When women get into their 50s, typically menstruation and ovulation cease with menopause. But you wouldn’t necessarily know that by looking at Hollywood. Many stars are having kids well into midlife. Stillman says there is nothing wrong with that, but many older people come into his office wanting to get pregnant with their own eggs, because aging Celebrity X just had twins. Stillman knows that’s not possible and says these actresses need to be honest. He feels it’s frustrating. “If they are going to be on the cover of People, they have a responsibility to their following, not to mislead people that fertility is easy at 52. It’s not. They are (using) donor eggs.”

So yes, there really is a biological clock. And while it keeps tick, tick ticking, couples need to think about their odds when it comes to having little ones later in life.

Are you thinking of having a child? Are you having problems? Are you someone who was successful giving birth at a later age? Tell us your story. We’d like to hear about it.

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Jennifer Pifer
CNN Medical Senior Producer

I am getting married in October.  Since my fiancé and I got engaged, most of our free time has been spent planning the wedding, selling our individual homes and looking for a new home to buy together. Getting married in your 30s seems much more complicated than getting married in your 20s. There are lots of balls to juggle.  Just when I think I’m getting into a rhythm, something else comes up.

Take what happened a few weeks ago.

My future in-laws were over helping us get my fiancé’s house ready to put on the market.
My future mother-in-law and I were in the kitchen organizing the cabinets.

“Now I know it’s none of my business,” she said as she deftly sorted orphan silverware and mismatched mugs, “but if you are thinking about starting a family in the next year, you need to start taking folic acid.”

I haven’t even found a wedding dress. Now I have to start planning for a baby?

Turns out, my betrothed’s very wise mother is right. Doctors have known for years that women who take folic acid before they get pregnant cut down the risk of serious birth defects such as spina bifida. Now new research suggests women who take folic acid supplements for a least a year before they become pregnant can slash their risk of having a premature baby by half. That, in turn, can lower the risk of things like cerebral palsy, physical disabilities like blindness and mental retardation.

Intrigued and new to the world of all things prenatal, I called Dr. Radek Bukowski at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He’s the doctor leading this research. “Folic acid has a lot of powerful effects,” Dr. Bukowski says, but “nobody really knows why folic acid works.” One of the leading theories, says Dr. Bukowski, is that if it is taken before conception and during the first few months afterwards “maybe it protects against infection.”

Dr. Bukowski also told me the average woman, with no history of having children with birth defects, can get enough folic acid in a multivitamin. It seems like a simple step all women can take to increase the odds of having a health baby. Moms out there - what other things would you suggest? And what do you wish other moms had told you before you got pregnant?

As for me, I have some more research to do. Wonder if folic acid can help me lose 10 pounds in time for my wedding?

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.