Maternity x-ray. From 20 to 30 years old and… “At that age, I was not mentally prepared”

At almost 24, Araceli had her first child, and in just four years, she was already on her third. It was the 70s of the last century and it was “usual”. Further behind, while the eldest was on his way to adulthood, he arrived … Mary, penultimate. From now on, it is Mary who is mother. Less than three months ago, the second in the family arrived. She is already 38 years old and the first was born when she was 33. A resounding “no” comes out of her mouth when she asks If you imagine being a mother in your twenties, which today is considered an early age and at which his mother gave birth to his older brother. “I wasn’t at all excited about the idea of being a mother. At that moment, neither my energy nor my spirit was there,” he explains. Yours is just an eexample of how motherhood has changed over the years.

According to the latest study by the INE (National Institute of Statistics) on births as a natural phenomenon of the population in 2024, just over 900 women between 20 and 24 years old had a child. Their offspring represent only seven percent of the 12,541 babies born in Castile and León during these twelve months. Between every twenty years, totaled just over 2,800, or 22 percent of the total. Fifty years ago, when Araceli was the first’s mother, more than 21,000 babies had mothers in their twenties in the Community, almost six out of ten born at a time when, in 1975, there were more than 36,000.

Now the Thirty-year-olds grab the bulkwith almost 8,000 children, or about two out of three, whereas half a century ago and forty years ago too, they did not even represent thirty percent of the total. “We were all the same years,” María remembers of her first childbirth preparation classes, and they were online, at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, among her groups of friends, they were “one of the first” to start a family, says María, who remembers how they told her that “when she was a child” she “always said she wanted to be a young mother.” “But then, when the time comes, not at all,” he emphasizes. Yes, it was in her plans to start a family “and when someone around you starts to start, you start to think about it”, she emphasizes, knowing very well, as the qualified nurse that she is, that “if we want to have it, I think as soon as possible, because yes I later became aware of the difficulties in conceivingincreasing risks…”

large families

In his twenties, “he was in work, continue training and try to have a little stability and also to enjoy life, to go out, to travel…”. Social changes that have had a total impact on birth rates. “It’s that I I don’t see myself working with my four children.because I could have continued working, but I said, “What am I doing?” Should I hire a woman to take care of them and give her my salary? “So we women earned very little,” emphasizes Araceli, who left the job market to devote herself fully to her family.

Four children contributed to the census. Big family. One of those that María, who lived there as a child – even if deep down “it was everyone’s toy” due to the age difference, mother and daughter agree – wanted to have when she was a child. “But no, “I can’t imagine it now.” barely, and that she and her husband come from large families. Two is their “magic” number, that of a good part of those who have children in Castilla y León and that of their environment, in which those who do not have children “dominate”. Circumstances which also impact birth rates. From these more than 36,600 babies born fifty years ago, to some more than 12,500 in 2024. And yet, births have experienced a slight rebound. In comparison, it is almost three times less than in these “baby boom” times.

Entering maternity ward in your thirties also limits the number of births per woman. “Without really thinking about it, we always saw ourselves with two children. But it is true that there was a moment of great laziness”, admits María, for whom the move from a larger city like Madrid to Valladolid, with close families and more manageable times, also gave an impulse. Next to her, her mother, who, although she recognizes that at 24 years old motherhood was premature and at over 40 years old she gave birth again, looking “more prepared”, I would have waited “at 28 or 30 hours at most”. “I think it might be a little late now” when it starts. María admits: “It makes me angry knowing that if I wanted to have more, I would have to try right away or I know it won’t be possible anymore. This limitation annoys you. That is to say, if I want to, I can’t, I have to do it very quickly or when maybe I still don’t want to.

Araceli, who knows what it’s like to be a mother in your 20s and also in your 40s, is clear about this. It’s one thing to be older and another to start motherhood as the years go by: “No. Honestly, no,” she answers when asked if she plans to give birth for the first time at this age. “I think already I would have settled down and not been encouraged“, he explains.

More than seven out of ten, due to natural childbirth

Of the 12,541 births recently completed in 2024, the majority are natural births, since with 9,272 they represented 73 percent of the total, barely above the 71 percent they represented ten years earlier. By cesarean section, another 3,269. And those occurring at term, both by natural childbirth and by surgery, also dominated: 8,861 and 2,933, respectively. However, there were 747 premature babies. More than half marked the first time in the maternity ward for those giving birth to a baby and just over a third of those born were the second in the family. From the third year, this figure drops considerably since only 1,100 people were able to obtain their large family card for the first time. But there were those who saw the birth of the tenth – two cases. In total, 1,535 babies were at least the third in the saga. Depending on the nationality of the mother, 20 percent of births were to a foreign parent. Ten years ago there were 12 of them. Which has changed a lot over time, if half a century ago 98 were married mothers, in 2024 they would be distributed almost half with single mothers.

As statistics prove, half a century ago there were also women who gave birth in their forties and even older. A little over 2,000 therefore, a figure even higher in absolute terms than the number of women who gave birth at this age last year in Castile and León (1,482). The difference is the weight over the total. If at the time they did not even represent six percent, today they represent almost double and are close to twelve percent, while in 1994 they did not even reach two. The group stands out from 40 to 45 years old, with 1,344 babies born, A figure very similar to that of 2023. And there were also eight who were 50 years old or over, while three had not yet celebrated fifteen candles and 259 were between 15 and 19 years old.

Of these nearly 1,500 births to mothers already entered andIn the 1940s, in 629 cases it was the first child, meaning that more than forty percent marked their parents’ beginnings in motherhood, five of them have already completed half a century. Of course, in most cases – almost two hundred – they were just starting this decade. And also that one in ten first-time buyers had already reached their forties and that half of the people born in 2024 were the first arrivals in the family.

Also among them, parents in their 30s and older dominate Half of babies born in 2024 had a parent between 30 and 39 years old.