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Wednesday, March 8, 2006 12:00 AM

Open adoption, broken heart

I knew it would be hard for my daughter's birth mother to give her up. I just didn't expect to feel so guilty for taking her.

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  • Wednesday, March 8, 2006 03:31 PM

    The clock ticks for thee

    Women can and do have kids after age 27. However, you have no way of knowing whether you will be one of the unlucky ones whose fertility declines early, and therefore it is risky to assume you'll be fine if you start after 30. I personally know three women (close family friends, all with exciting and stressful jobs) who started to try at 33, 36, and 38 and were painfully thwarted. They had no underlying medical problems, just old eggs!

    Having children because you are worried that your biological clock is going to wind down before you can get knocked up is an *excellent* reason to have children, if you need that tick tick tick to motivate you to get beyond your doubts and ambivalencies. The women who claim not to hear it are the ones who end up childless at 40 after very exciting careers, and no way to go back in time to their fertile 20's.

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