title: [Pregnant women's attitudes towards the acceptable age limits for conceiving and giving birth to a child].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether there are socially determined permissible and desirable age limits for conceiving and childbirth among pregnant women in Bulgaria and their relation to age, general and obstetrical medical history, method of conception, level of education and whether pregnancy has been postponed or not.
  
  
  METHODS
  388 patients from the Fetal Medicine Clinic of the State University Hospital "Maichin Dom" in Sofia were provided with anonymous questionnaires, containing 38 questions. Two of the questions were essensial: 1) "What is the maximal permissible age for a woman to become pregnant and give birth to a child?". 2) "What is the maximal desirable age for a woman to become pregnant and deliver the planned numberof children?". The questionnaire contained also 23 questions related to the demographic characteristics of the participants and to their general and obstetric medical history. Data were processed with SPSS 13.0 statistical package. Descriptive and comparative analysis was performed after grouping according to one or mare chracteristics. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  54.2% (208/388) of the respondents determined a limit of the maximal permissible age for woman to conceive and give birth to a child. 53.4% (111/208) of them set the age limit of 40 years (28.9% of all patients). 63.6% (245/388) of the interrogated set a desirable age limit for conception and giving birth. Among then 82.9% (203/245) have set the limit at 40 years. The factors that influenced significantly the attitude towards the permissible age forconception/giving birth were the mode of conception, age and the level of education. Patients who had conceived spontaneously and had higher educational level were more confident when assessing the permissible age for conception/giving birth. Patients who had conceived by IVF/ICSI were significantly less confident answering the questions about age limits. The understanding for the permissible age for conception was not influenced by past obstetric history, deliberate postponemend of reproductive plans and the presence of chronic medical disorders. The understanding that pregnancy is always permissible (irrespective of age) was not influenced significantly by any of the factors. The understanding about the desirable age for conceiving/giving birth was influenced significantly only by the educational level--patients with higher degree of education were more confident in setting a desirable age limit.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dakov
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dimitrova
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Todorov
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001290:Attitude; D002031:Bulgaria; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D036801:Parturition; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People / Q000523:psychology; D012098:Reproduction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult