I Got Pregnant Naturally and Had a Baby at 45

I’ve been holding onto this for a while, waiting for the right moment to share this major life update with my readers. So here it is, plainly: I had a baby at 45. And I got pregnant naturally, without IVF, fertility treatments, or interventions.

In fact, we weren’t even trying. This pregnancy was a huge, unexpected blessing after eight years of secondary infertility.

I know some of you are reading this and feeling genuinely happy for me, and I appreciate that more than you know. But I also know some of you are reading it from a much harder place. Maybe you’re in your thirties or your forties, and somewhere along the way, someone (a doctor, a headline, someone in a FB group, a well-meaning relative, etc.) made you feel like your window had already closed. 

If that’s you, I wrote this whole thing with you in mind. Because that’s completely untrue.

More and more women are having healthy babies in their forties than ever before. And it’s completely possible.

And I want to tell you everything. The truth about being pregnant in your forties, including the parts I don’t have answers for — and the actual numbers, because once I started digging into the research, I realized the story we’ve all been told about fertility after 40 is much more discouraging than the data actually is. Isn’t that interesting?

If you are ready to take a different approach to getting pregnant, and want a detailed breakdown of the exact steps I took, join me in my new mini-course Fertile After 40. I’m sharing everything I actually did inside this program.

Pregnancy over 40 is possible, and seeing it matters

A quick, honest note before we start: I’m not a medical professional, and this isn’t medical advice. This is my story, plus the research I wish someone had shown me years ago. Always work with your own healthcare provider, especially when it comes to fertility and pregnancy. Please read this as encouragement, not a prescription.

Having a third baby was always in my heart. After so many years of it just not happening, I stopped expecting it, but I never fully let it go. It was always in the back of my mind, even though I had pretty much given up.

Here’s what allowed me to hold onto my hopes of getting pregnant.

A couple of years back, a good friend of mine had a healthy pregnancy and baby at the age of 46. Watching that happen in real life did something for me that no statistic could: it made pregnancy in my 40s feel real, not something to fear, and not something reserved for celebrities with unlimited resources. I think that’s part of why I’m writing this and living this truth myself. Somebody’s real story might be the thing that shifts it for you, too. Maybe mine? I can only hope.

Seeing her throughout her pregnancy and meeting her perfect, beautiful baby made me completely rethink wanting a baby. But, let’s be honest. Getting pregnant naturally in your mid-forties is not common and I was still very pessimistic about my odds. Fertility does decline with age and I’m not here to hand you a formula and pretend biology doesn’t exist.

I don’t know exactly why it worked for me other than to believe that it was just meant to be. Some of it is genetic. And some of it, I believe, was the time I spent taking care of my body in a very specific way (though I was actually trying to lose weight, not get pregnant…), though I’ll never be able to prove exactly which part did what.

So please don’t read this as “she did this and that, so if I do the same things, it’ll happen for me too.” That’s not fair to promise you, and it’s not the truth. Because it won’t necessarily happen for everyone. What I can do is tell you exactly what I did, show you what the research actually says, and let you decide what’s worth borrowing.

What the numbers actually say about pregnancy in your 40s

Here’s the part that surprised me most when I finally sat down with the data: women in their 40s are having babies at the highest rate in generations and the trend line only goes up.

According to the CDC’s most recent birth data, the birth rate for women ages 40–44 hit 12.7 births per 1,000 women in 2024, the highest it’s been since 1965. It has risen almost continuously since 1985, and the number of births to women in their early 40s jumped another 4% in a single year. Zoom out further and the fertility rate for women 40 and older has climbed 24% in the last decade alone.

And past 45? It’s rarer, but it is very much happening. The CDC tracks births to women 45 and older every single year — thousands of babies, year after year, and that rate recently rose for the first time in years too.

So when someone tells you pregnancy in your 40s is impossible, you can tell them that’s simply not what the data shows. Every one of those numbers is a real mom in her 40s, just like me.

Why the statistics feel scarier than they are

Now let’s talk about the numbers that get quoted at women because I think they’re often presented in the most discouraging way possible.

You’ve probably heard that at 40 your chance of conceiving is about 5% per cycle, dropping toward 1% by 45. That sounds devastating. But per-cycle odds are the least encouraging way to frame fertility, because nobody tries for one month. Looked at over a full year of trying, research suggests that roughly half of women ages 40–45 conceive naturally within twelve months. Half. That is a very different headline than “1% chance.”

Here’s another thing that stunned me: some of the most-repeated fertility-decline statistics aren’t even based on modern women. The famous claim that one in three women over 35 won’t conceive after a year of trying traces back to French birth records from 1670 to 1830: women with no antibiotics, prenatal care, or even electricity. Modern studies of women actually trying to conceive are more hopeful and realistic.

And if you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know that I’ll alwo want to be balanced here, because that’s what I’d want from a friend. The risks are also real. Miscarriage rates do rise significantly with age, and pregnancies after 40 are monitored more closely for things like preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, for good reason. But “watched more carefully” is not the same thing as “doomed.” 

One study following healthy women who conceived spontaneously after 45 found that the majority of appropriately screened women delivered their babies successfully. 

With good care, a healthy pregnancy in your mid-40s is *not* a fantasy. I’m proof, and I’m far from the only one.

Now the honest part I won’t skip over

(If you’re sensitive and don’t want to read about the risks right now, feel free to skip to the next section and come back to this at a later time when you have the mindset for this information.)

Here’s where I have to be the honest, because leaving this out wouldn’t be fair to you. Reframing the doom-and-gloom doesn’t mean the risks disappear, it means we hold them like grown women instead of getting scared out of even trying.

Miscarriage is more common as we age. It’s roughly one in three pregnancies in your early 40s, climbing toward half by 45. And the odds of a chromosomal difference like Down syndrome rise too, around 1 in 100 at 40 and about 1 in 30 at 45. I’m not telling you that to scare you. I’m telling you because you deserve the real numbers, not just my highlight reel.

But here’s the other half of that truth: the vast majority of babies born to moms over 40 are healthy, especially with good prenatal care. The screening we have now is remarkable: a simple blood test as early as 10 weeks can tell you so much, long before you’d ever have to wonder. This is exactly what your doctor and those early appointments are for. Knowing the risks isn’t the same as being ruled by them. It just means you walk in with your eyes open, which is honestly how I did every part of this.

It did feel like I was holding my breath for 40 weeks, if I’m being honest, but I want you to know that a healthy pregnancy is still possible. But it’s responsible to know the real risks, too.

How I actually got pregnant

If you are still reading, I feel that you might have it in your heart that you want a baby in the near future.

None of this was a fertility protocol, and I can’t say enough that we were not trying to get pregnant. In fact, we had just moved to a new state six months prior and it was a really stressful time for my husband and me. Pregnancy was not even a thought on our minds at the time, but God definitely had bigger plans for our family.

Ultimately, getting pregnant at age 45 mostly came down to how I’d already been living for years; the same non-toxic, wellness-minded, healing-first, nourish-your-body-first approach I’ve been sharing here since the beginning. But I did a few key things differently. And people in my life keep asking, so here’s the real list.

If you are ready to take a different approach to getting pregnant, and want a detailed breakdown of the exact steps I took, join me in my new mini-course Fertile After 40. I’m sharing everything I actually did inside this program.

We weren’t trying, so there was no pressure. We had wanted a third child, but after roughly eight years of unexplained secondary infertility, we’d stopped thinking about it. It genuinely wasn’t on our minds. I can’t tell you whether letting go mattered physiologically, but I can tell you it’s the truth of what happened.

When I was trying to get pregnant for the first time with my oldest, I know that the stress I had put myself through was totally counterproductive. I treated it like another one of my achievements and I do believe this stress was a factor in why it took me longer to get pregnant the first time than it did with my second baby. With my second baby, we got pregnant on the first or second try.

And I’m telling you this to emphasize how possible it is to get pregnant in your forties… not to boast or anything like that. I want you to know wholeheartedly that fertility is achievable!

I cleaned up my environment and ditched toxins long ago. The everyday stuff: what I put on my skin, what I cleaned my house with, what I cooked in and drank out of. Reducing that low-grade toxic load is the thing I’ve built my life around. I’d been doing it for years before this pregnancy, so I can’t call it the catalyst. But I’ll never believe it hurt.

I started a new supplement regimen. But the truth is that I wasn’t trying to get pregnant at the time. I was trying to lose weight. I had started a couple of new supplements to help balance my hormones, with the goal of losing weight. (Spoiler alert: I did not lose weight, I nourished my body, addressed nutritional deficiencies, and ended up pregnant.) If you want to know the specifics, I go over each supplement and everything I did as part of my wellness morning routine in my new mini course, Fertile After 40.

I spent a lot of time healing and detoxing. About two years before I got pregnant, I went through a really big detox phase where I was using the infrared sauna twice a week and using red light therapy pretty intensely. I had really also just done a lot of the healing that I think was holding me back personally from so many things, so that work had already been done. When I layered in the lifestyle and supplement changes, it meant that pregnancy after years of infertility was possible.

What my pregnancy was actually like

I braced myself for nine months of worried faces and worst-case-scenario conversations, because that’s the story we’re all told about being “geriatric” (a word I used in jest, for the record). That’s not what happened.

For the most part, my OB treated me like a healthy pregnant woman, not a walking risk factor. Were there a few extra checks along the way? Sure, and I was grateful for every one of them, because that’s simply what good care looks like at any age. But no one made me feel fragile, or like my body was a problem to be managed. I felt supported and capable, and that changed everything about how I moved through those months.

I want you to know that’s possible, because the fear does so much damage before anything has even happened. A calm, respectful pregnancy after 40 isn’t a unicorn. For me, it was just 9 months.

The birth I wanted

Here’s the part I’m proudest of: I mostly got the birth I hoped for.

I wanted a natural delivery, and that’s what I had. The one intervention along the way was an induction, and I want to be really honest about how that went, because in our world “induction” can feel like a dirty word. It wasn’t something done to me, and it wasn’t something I was pressured or frightened into. My provider walked me through the why, I asked my questions, and I agreed with the decision. I consented to it fully, and I’d make the same choice again. That, to me, is what a good birth actually is: not a rigid script, but you, informed and in the driver’s seat, saying yes to what’s right for you and your baby.

And postpartum, the season everyone warned would flatten me at my age? It’s been one of the most tender, grounded stretches of my life. In fact, it was possibly the most positive of my three postpartum experiences I had. Recovery had its hard days, of course, but I healed, I felt like myself, and I got to just be with my baby. The years of gentle groundwork gave my body something to draw on when it counted most.

What you can actually do (without stressing or overhauling your life)

If you’re in your late 30s or 40s and a baby is in your heart, here’s the doable version — not a 47-step protocol, just where I’d start.

See a provider who takes you seriously. If you’re over 40 and trying, most guidelines suggest getting evaluated after just a few months rather than waiting a full year. You deserve a doctor who talks about your options, not just your odds, and if yours leads with doom, it’s okay to find another one.

Give your eggs a good 90 days. Because of that maturation window, the choices you make this season can matter for the egg you ovulate next season. Prioritize sleep, quit alcohol, get consistent gentle movement, and eat like you’re already nourishing someone, because in a sense, you are.

Lower your everyday toxic load, gently. Swap the products that touch your body and food first — skincare, cookware, cleaning spray, plastic food storage. Small swaps, one at a time. Grab my favorite swaps on The Master List of Non-Toxic Products, a free resource that covers recommendations from household and supplements to wellness and beyond.

Protect your mind from the doom-scroll. You now know the per-cycle statistics are the gloomiest possible framing. Choose your inputs the way you choose your food.

You’re not too late

If you take one thing from me, let it be this: your age is a number on a chart, not a verdict on your life. I won’t ever promise you a specific outcome; I respect you too much to sell you certainty I don’t have. But I can tell you that taking gentle care of your body is never wasted, that you’re allowed to hope, and that you deserve a doctor and a community in your corner while you find your own way to this. Whether you’re holding a positive test or still waiting on one, you are not behind, and you are not alone. I’m so glad you’re here. 💛

I would also love to support you on a 90-day fertility journey. Please check out Fertile After 40!

Recommended:

• Fertile After 40: The Exact Method That Got Me Pregnant at 45, Naturally
• My 40+ Pregnancy Group on Facebook
• Just Found Out You’re Pregnant? Do This First!