Age at first birth among women in Buenos Aires city: Exploratory analysis, 1950–2024

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In the face of the challenges of modern life, the role of women in society has undergone great changes compared to past decades. Thanks to these changes, today women develop in various work areas on a par with men. In order for this progress to be possible, in many cases women have decided to postpone motherhood, a phenomenon that is widespread in Western countries. The consequence of this is that reproductive potential is affected since, in women, around the age of 35 there is a decrease in fertility. Despite this, in our country there is little information regarding this problem. OBJECTIVE: To study whether the age of women at first childbirth in the City of Buenos Aires has varied between the 1950s and 2020. MATERIALS and METHODS: An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out, developing a survey which was answered by 1031 people. The responses were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: After the analysis, it was observed that, in the comparison between the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with the 2000s, 2010s and the first half of the 2020s in the City of Buenos Aires, there was a significant increase in the age of women at first delivery, going from 22-23 years to 27-29 years, respectively. DISCUSSION: Although further research is needed to confirm our findings, we believe that this work could be the beginning of a dissemination work on the subject.