Pregnant and over 40: Carla Bruni joins the club

(Frank Privell/Wire Image)
(Frank Privell/Wire Image)

Today France's first lady Carla Bruniconfirmed what we already know: she's pregnant. Also 40's are the new 30's for baby-making.

Bruni is 43 and isn't believed to have had fertility treatments. She, joins Missy Yager, Mary McCormack and Tina Fey in the over 40 and currently pregnant club. Feel free to pass this information along to your doctor, your mom, or your overly concerned friends on a track: Relax. Women do get pregnant in their 40s.

Of course the health risks of both baby and mom increase, and no one's saying fertility is a piece of cake, but it's comforting to know it does happen with some regularity.

Let's talk celebrity new moms: Kelly Preston, 48, Marcia Cross, 44, Mariah Carey, 41, Jane Krakowski, 42, Rachel Dratch, 44, Nicole Kidman, 41. While it's safe to assume endless cash flow and breakthrough fertility treatments played a role, it's unlike they all required that freight train. (Dratch's pregnancy was unexpected.)

It would be nice to make it though our 30's without all the undue pressure, only to find ourselves in another decade of fertility anxiety. So maybe lets lay off the over-30 egg conversations, the cliff-drop graph charts and the latest panic-inducing research about being over the hill at 32.

Here's some research, out last month, that recently gave me a meltdown: The women of Generation X aren't having children, according to the Center for Work Life Policy. Their study of 3000 women born between 1965 and 1978 found almost half to be in relationships but without kids.

First of all, as a 1978 baby, I was told I was Generation Y. Secondly, we're not done yet. Writing off our generation of women as childless is still a little premature in this day and age. Just because a woman is over 32 or even over 42, it doesn't mean she's down for the count.

Here's a celebrity gallery of new moms over 40 for proof, also a good excuse to look at pictures of celebrities...

Links:
How old is too old to be pregnant?
8 surprising fertility facts every woman should know
Tina Fey is pregnant at 40
Is Carla Bruni a mean girl?