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FAMILY

Why Swedish mums are having children later in life

For Swedish mums, it is now more common to have a child after 45 years of age than as a teenager.

Why Swedish mums are having children later in life
Mother holds a newborn baby's hand. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

In 2022, 410 children were born to mothers aged 19 or younger, according to number crunchers Statistics Sweden. Meanwhile, 537 children were born to mothers aged 45 or older – the first year in which older mothers outnumbered their teenaged counterparts.

This upward trend began with the introduction of birth control pills in the 1960s, which allowed women greater control over their fertility and family planning.

Access to abortion and Sweden’s shift from an agricultural society to an industrialised one also bolstered the upward demographic trend for maternal age. In 1968, nearly 9,000 babies were born to teen mums, a number that has shrunk significantly over the decades.

This trend is not limited to Sweden. Across the Nordics, parents are waiting longer to have children.

“The upper limit is not as ‘fixed’ anymore,” Gunnar Andersson, a professor of demography at Stockholm University, told Swedish news agency TT. “Previously, there was perhaps an occasional 49-year-old. But with the new treatment methods, children are born to mothers at ages where it was not biologically possible before.”

IVF treatments were introduced in Sweden in the late 1970s, with the first Nordic IVF baby born in 1982 in Gothenburg. Today, both childless couples and single women without children in Sweden can apply for up to three free rounds of IVF at public hospitals.

This publicly-funded treatment for single women and single transgender men who can still reproduce is only available to Swedish citizens or permanent residence holders, according to the Karolinska University Hospital.

And while there are health risks associated with pregnancy at higher ages, overall, it seems that having an older mum can pay off for the children, who tend to born into better socio-economic conditions.

Delaying starting a family allows parents to focus on their education and on establishing their careers and livelihoods, Andersson said.

But sometimes, life happens.

“It may be that you do not find a suitable partner until you are a little older, or have a new relationship,” Andersson said. “You don’t plan to wait to have children until you’re 45.”

But even if the choice to have a baby until later in life is not a deliberate choice, for the child, having an older mum can be a positive thing.

“Children born to slightly older mothers are often better prepared than children born to very young mothers,” Andersson says. “The mothers have better incomes, social resources with a larger network and greater personal maturity.”

Member comments

  1. Well if it’s just a personal choice, then very well respected. But if we have to wait till 45 to have a child for ‘better’ socioeconomic conditions then I think there’s a problem in our society and economy. We must address that.

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EASTER

How to dress your child up as a Swedish Easter Witch

Help! I've received a note from our Swedish school telling me to dress my child up for their Easter party. What should they wear?

How to dress your child up as a Swedish Easter Witch

Anything vaguely Easter-related will do, such as bunny ears, a sweater with a bunny print, a chicken costume, or wearing all yellow will do – but the classic outfit, at least for girls, is to dress up as an Easter witch (known as påskhäxa, påskkärring or påskgumma in Swedish).

Folklore alleges that witches flew off on broomsticks to dance with the devil at a meadow known as Blåkulla (“blue hill”), which Swedish parents are seemingly unfazed about their kids re-enacting.

In most of Sweden, Maundy Thursday (skärtorsdag) is the traditional day on which to dress up as an Easter Witch (it’s Easter Saturday in western Sweden) but in practice you often spot children with painted faces, headscarves and broomsticks throughout the holiday.

So what do you need to dress up as an Easter Witch?

In our experience, parents’ efforts range without abandon from the ambitious to the half-hearted, so you shouldn’t have to feel that you have to go further than what you and your child think is fun and manageable.

For a minimum viable product, all you need is a kerchief, scarf or shawl to wear on the head.

Tie it under their chin and they will be immediately recognisable as an Easter Witch.

This use of the headscarf in Sweden can be traced back to the late 18th century, when it was worn by farmers’ wives.

Another relatively easy item to include is an apron. Similarly, this harks back to the notion of what a rural woman usually looked like, which is also associated with witch trials in Sweden in the 1600s (which tended to be held in the countryside).

Thirdly, for a basic Easter Witch outfit, makeup in the form of freckles and rosy cheeks.

If you want to step up your level of ambition, you can also include accessories. These include first and foremost a broomstick, but also an old-fashioned coffee pot (not even dancing with the devil can make Swedes forsake their coffee) and a soft cat toy, ideally black.

Can boys be Easter Witches? Of course they can, and in any case it would hardly stand out as the most peculiar thing about this tradition.

That said, in practice you’ll see few boys, if any, in the full Easter Witch outfit. The more modern equivalent for boys instead often includes a shirt, braces/suspenders, freckles with a moustache (instead of or in addition to rosy cheeks), and some kind of hat.

Hear Jonas Engberg from the Nordic Museum in Stockholm discuss Easter traditions in Sweden, including witches, in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast

 
 
 
 
 
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