Here's how my "birth" plan orignally went: Have all my children by the time I was 30.

I achieved that plan with the arrivals of Josh (when I was 24), Katie Beth (when I was 27) and Amy (when I was 29.)

Mission accomplished.

I was

Fast forward twelve years later. My husband and I were parenting two teens and one preteen. Life was fast and furious--and overall we were enjoying ourselves.

And then I got very, very tired. Not just I'm-the-mother-of-teens tired. Exhaustion hung on to me just as stubbornly as that long-ago baby weight. I was staring at my 41st birthday and wondering if I was dealing with perimenopause.

And then my "Oh, let's just rule this out" pregnancy test came back positive.

Pregnant. At 41.

That was not my plan.

At any age, pregnancy is risky business. A miracle, to be sure--but still risky.  But at 41, I quickly learned that I was now high-risk. The medical community even had a label for me: Advanced Maternal Age.

What is Advanced Maternal Age?

Pregnant women who are 35 years old or older earn the title Advanced Maternal Age (AMA). Why?

When a pregnant woman is 35 years old (or older) at her estimated date of delivery, her chance of having a baby with Down syndrome is equal to her chance of having a miscarriage associated with second trimester amniocentesis. Historically, some in the medical community assumed a woman would abort a less than perfect baby. Therefore, the risk of miscarriage was deemed an acceptable risk.

That, in a somewhat convoluted nutshell, is why 35 was picked as the AMA age.

So what's the big deal about being an older mom?

Studies do show that risks for both mom and baby increase as mom ages. So what are some of those risks?

1. Increased risk of infertility
2. Increased risk high blood pressure and diabetes
3. Increased risk of miscarriage
4. Increased risk of birth defects such as Down syndrome

If  you want more specifics, check out these links:

http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/birthdefects.html and http://www.americanbaby.com/ab/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ab/story/data/39.xml

What do you do with this information?

Ever-reliable Webster's dictionary says information is a collection of facts from which conclusions can be drawn. So, that's what you do with this information. You read it, think about it, and you draw your conclusions.

Maybe you are one of the many women choosing to delay motherhood. At least make an informed decision. Stay healthy. Know about the different medical tests you will be offered once you become pregnant.

Maybe, like me, you've been surprised by a late-in-life pregnancy--what I call an unexpected blessing. You still need to know enough to decide what medical tests you want--and what medical tests you don't want.

My unexpected blessing is now six years old. Yes, being pregnant at 41 turned my world upside down. And yes, in some ways that pregnancy was harder--emotionally and physically--than my first three. But ultimately I had to make the same choice I made during each of my pregnancies: Was I going to worry, worry, worry for nine months? Or was I going to relax and treasure the miracle?

Fear should never destroy the joy of pregnancy.

And that's true whether you're 25, 35, or 45.