Laura Blank knew when she was ready to become a mother. She was recently married, well-traveled and fulfilled at her work. She just happened to be 39.

Jessica Beck felt confident about when she should start a family too. She was also recently married, had been a nanny and preschool teacher but had just turned 22.

“It was the right time for me,” says Beck, a mother of two daughters from southern Pennsylvania. “It was always what I wanted to do.”

Blank, a mother of two in Catonsville, is equally happy about waiting to start a family. “I feel like I have a lot of life experience,” she says.

There are pros and cons to becoming a mother at any age, experts say. A younger mother might have more energy, but lack some of the financial and social stability of an older mother. An older mom might have more medical complications than her younger counterparts. But those are only generalizations. And no matter what age, spouses, fertility issues, finances and career moves may all influence the decision to start a family — or add to one.

“There are so many factors,” says Jennifer Sober, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Cockeysville, adding that there isn’t a universal “best time” for everyone.

In general, women are waiting longer to become mothers. From 1970 to 2006, the proportion of first births to women aged 35 years and older increased nearly eight times, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. In 2006, about 1 out of 12 first births were to women aged 35 years and older, compared with 1 out of 100 in 1970.

Still, the average age of mothers in the United States is about 25 years old — 26 in Maryland.

Donna Bogash was taken aback to find she didn’t meet the requirements of one religious group she wanted to join with her two sons. It had an age cut-off of 35 for the mothers involved. She was in her early 40s at the time.

“It stung. I mean, they don’t know me,” says Bogash, a stay-at-home mom in Reisterstown. “It really hurt.”

Bogash has responded by creating a Maryland branch of Motherhood Later Than Sooner, a national organization aimed at uniting moms who are 35-plus.

“This is creating a support where none has existed,” says Bogash. “There’s a stigma to being an older mom.”

Bogash, who became a mother for a the first time at 33 years old and again at the age of 36, is considering having a third child. She is now 49.

But she was a little reluctant to mention it to her friends, most of whom are younger. Even though she is physically fit and feels energetic, Bogash says, “I didn’t want to hear, ‘You’re too old.’”

Sometimes, women don’t have a choice as to when they start a family.

Blank, for instance, didn’t intend to be an older mother. “My husband didn’t come along until then,” she says. “I wasn’t going to get married just to get married.”

The result was that she had her daughter when she was 39 years old and her son when she was 42.

Most of the time age isn’t an issue. Every once in a while, her age difference will be apparent when she’s talking with other — younger — moms. “When we talk about music and movies,” says Blank, now 45. “They’ll say something like, ‘We watched this when I was a kid,’ and I’ll be thinking, ‘I was in college when that came out.’”

Before children, Blank traveled and had multiple jobs and relationships. “Sometimes I forget not everyone has had that,” she says.

Beck says she’s always known what she wanted to do — be a stay-at-home mom. And she didn’t see the point in waiting too long after she was married.

“I’ve known forever what I wanted to do,” she says.

“I’d been a nanny for older moms and I wanted to have the energy to run around with my kids,” says Beck, who has a 22-month-old daughter and a 3-month-old daughter.

Beck also feels lucky that her parents are young enough to be active and involved with her daughters.

Medically, there are advantages to being a mother younger in life, experts say.

Advanced maternal age is considered 35 years old, because the rate of chromosomal abnormalities tend to sharply increase at that point, says Dr. Laura Erdman of Charles Street Ob-Gyn Associates.

Women over 35 years old have higher rates of miscarriages and complications including preeclampsia and gestational diabetes.

Younger women also tend to have an easier time getting pregnant, says Erdman. “Their recovery is easier too,” she says.

But, Erdman says, “From a social perspective, an older mom might have confidence and be more socially and financially stable.”

How age affects parenting hasn’t been researched very much except at the extremes, in teenaged mothers and mothers over 45, Sober says.

What may have a greater influence on how well mothers adjust to their roles as parents is the amount of support they have, financially and socially. A network of friends, a strong marriage and active grandparents can all make a tremendous difference, Sober says.

“The support you have when you have children, especially young kids, is so important,” says Sober.

Average age of moms in Maryland:
In 1970 — 21.6 years old. In 2006 — 26.1 years old.
Average age of moms in the U.S.:
In 1970 — 21.4 years old. In 2006 — 25.0
Source: National Center for Health Statistics - http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db21.htm#are