Average age of first-time mothers rises over 31 at Allegheny Health Network hospitals

People are having children later in life — a trend that’s especially pronounced in Western Pennsylvania.

The average age of first-time mothers who gave birth in 2024 at an Allegheny Health Network labor and delivery unit was 31.1 years old — three years higher than the national average, according to new data.

This number has climbed almost one full year in the last decade at AHN. The average age of a first-time AHN mom was 30.15 years in 2015, which is the year the now 14-hospital health system was formed.

In 2024, more than 8,300 babies at AHN labor and delivery programs in West Penn, Wexford, Forbes and Jefferson hospitals in Allegheny County, as well as Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie County.

“While our numbers skew a bit older, what we’ve seen from our data over the last decade is closely aligned with the national trend of mothers giving birth for the first time at an older age,” said Dr. Marcia Klein-Patel, chair of AHN Women’s Institute, in the announcement.

Average ages for first-time moms across the country increased from 26.6 years old in 2016 to 27.5 years in 2023 — across all racial and ethnic groups, according to a report published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At AHN, those ages were 30.5 in 2016 and 30.8 in 2023.

First-time mothers tend to be older in urban areas and toward the coasts, and younger in rural areas, the Great Plains and the South, according to national trends, AHN said.

Reasons people might wait longer to have children in America, according to experts, include:

• financial burdens
• prioritization of careers
• education
• changing societal and cultural norms
• advancements in reproductive medicine and IVF therapies

According to AHN, education plays the biggest role in when people choose to have children. Women with college degrees have children an average of seven years later than those without, and big cities tend to have more college graduates than rural areas.

Advanced maternal age, which is pregnancy in women who are 35 years of age or older, according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, can result in high-risk pregnancies, AHN said.

“No matter what the circumstance, our care is extremely personalized — we provide a connecting link between routine and tailored care to give moms and babies what they need, to help ensure they have the best chance possible to thrive,” said Dr. Devon M. Ramaeker, division chief of maternal-fetal medicine at the AHN Women’s Institute.

At UPMC, the average and median age for first-time mothers was 29 years old in 2024.

And according to Dr. Randi Turkewitz, head of Women’s Services and department chair for Obstetrics and Gynecology at Independence Health System, the average age of first-time moms at Westmoreland Hospital is 26.