Ayesha Curry is starting a dialogue on how, as women get older, people talk about getting pregnant.

The actress and novelist revealed earlier this month that she is expecting their fourth child with her husband, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors.


In the cover story for her website Sweet July, Ayesha Curry, 34, revealed the couple’s pregnancy and discussed the differences between being pregnant in her mid-30s and her 20s.

“What’s been really interesting has been my doctor’s appointments,” she stated in a letter. “I’m in my 30s, and so there’s all this paperwork referring to the experience as a ‘geriatric pregnancy’ and all the concerns that come along with that.”At the age of 22, Ayesha Curry gave birth to her first child, a girl called Riley, about 12 years ago.

Three years later, in 2015, she gave birth to the couple’s second daughter Ryan while she was in her mid-20s. In 2018, she gave birth to their son Canon while she was in her late 20s.
The soon-to-be mother of four expressed her desire for the “narrative” to change as more women choose to have children later in life and are not told they are “old.”

“I think there’s something that needs to be more nuanced when it comes to women, their age, and conversations around having children,” Ayesha Curry wrote in her post. Telling someone you’re ‘ancient’ is scary and unsettling, especially for women in their 30s and 40s who are experiencing this for the first time. The story needs to be somewhat changed, in my opinion.”


The definition of a “geriatric pregnancy”

Ayesha Curry is right when she says that more and more Americans are choosing to have children later in life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in 2022 compared to the previous year, the birth rate for women in their early 20s and early 30s dropped, but the birth rate for women ages 35 to 49 climbed.

Ayesha Curry will turn 35 later this month on March 23. At this age, the medical community views a pregnant woman as having reached “advanced maternal age.”


As opposed to the more informal term “geriatric pregnancy,” “advanced maternal age” is the word that is acceptable in the medical profession, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Dr. Shilpi Mehta-Lee, a maternal fetal medical specialist at NYU Langone Medical Center, previously told ABC News that the age of 35 was selected decades ago by researchers trying to determine which pregnant women should get an amniocentesis, a prenatal test in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is removed from the sac surrounding the fetus for testing.

It was found that women over 35 were more likely to give birth to a child with Down syndrome than to experience a miscarriage during amniocentesis.