More than 1,000 surveyed: most women are unaware of the risks of delayed pregnancy.(Obstetrics)

MONTREAL -- Most women are not well informed about the risks of delayed childbearing, and their decisions about timing a pregnancy are typically based on financial stability and relationship issues, results of a large Canadian study suggest.

"What this study really speaks to is that women and their families are not making decisions with as much information as they could be," Suzanne Tough, Ph.D., the study's lead investigator, said at the 18th World Congress on Fertility and Sterility.

"I think there are missed opportunities for providing preconception counseling by doctors and other health care providers when women come into the office for routine visits," Dr. Tough, who is an epidemiologist at Alberta Children's Hospital and the University of Calgary (Alta.), said during an interview.

In the study, which was presented in poster form at the meeting, 1,044 women who had just given birth to their first child in one of two urban medical centers were randomly selected for a telephone survey. Women aged older than 35 years accounted for approximately 40% of the sample. The mean age of the women at the time of conception was 32 years.

Study participants were questioned about the factors that influenced the timing of their pregnancies and about their knowledge concerning the link between delayed childbearing and low-birth-weight babies, preterm delivery, and multiple births.

For more than 90% of the women, regardless of their age, financial and relationship security were among the top influences on the decision to have a baby, as well as feeling that they had the right partner and the ability to provide a good life for the child.

The "biological clock" factored more heavily into the decisions of women aged older than 35 years, compared with younger women (84% vs. 52%), as did owning their own home (85% vs. 78%). Both of these differences between the groups were statistically significant.