Women over 40 DO NOT have a higher risk for Down's Syndrome babies. That statistic is skewed.

The risk is higher for Down's babies with a FIRST pregnancy and since in the last 20 years a greater majority of women were choosing to put off having babies until in their 40's all of a sudden the instances of Down's babies over the age of 40 increased drastically!

But it wasn't women in general over 40 having babies...it was STILL first pregnancies with the high risk - it just so happened that many more of these first pregnancies were occurring over age 40.

Thus the stats changed but were never explained accurately.

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The intense debate surrounding a very touchy subject.

In a fascinating article that recently appeared in New York Magazine, writer Lisa Miller outlines and ultimately defends the current boom of men and women becoming parents at age 50 and beyond.

The article begins with an anecdote - a couple meet and fall in love when she's 47 and he's 54. Through a donor egg and her husband's sperm, the woman gives birth to her first daughter at age 50.

Two years later, she attempts to get pregnant again. This time, she has to be brought out of menopause with hormones before she is able to become pregnant. Shortly thereafter, she gives birth to her second daughter.

This anecdote is only one of many, and they're on the rise. Birth rates among women ages 45 to 49 have risen 17% in just the past three years alone. Reproductive technology, of course, accounts for this sharp increase.

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