Dr Tony Falconer, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggests that women need to better manage their work and family life to better improve the chances of conception. Yet, more importantly improve the health of mother and baby.

The news may not come as a shock to a father trying to have a baby, however, the Dr Falconer believes that many women are now being heavily influenced by celebrity births, particularly by women over the age of 40.

'There's no doubt that between 30 and 35 is the time to have your children. We are building up a difficulty for ourselves as a society by people's expectations that they will wait until they are older. That's a very complex issue and it is a problem.'

He went on to warn that the older the woman the higher the risks of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and stillbirth were far higher. For a woman aged 40, the risks were around 30% for a 45 year old 40% and so on.

'Reproductively, tragedies can result as a direct result of later motherhood. The incidence of tragic outcome .. will be more common the older the mother is.'

Dr Falconer suggested there was a positive solution to the situation via education of school girls thereby engaging, informing and educating them as to the benefits and risks of child birth or having a baby.

He said: 'As a 15 year old girl, when you're doing your GCSE preparation, it might just sow a seed for them if you give them information at that stage that the best time to have children was 20-35.'

Dr Falconer told The Guardian that 'Obstetric care isn't the same at 3am as it is at 3pm and it should be. This is a matter of huge concern.'

He suggested that the NHS needed to reform how it operates and change the culture of medical care to patients, because presently it is only set up to work at a high standard for a limited period throughout the week, not 24/7. He said that: 'The NHS runs at one level for 40 hours a week and a completely different level for the rest of the week. And when you're dealing with acute services that shouldn't happen.'

The government's Health Secretary Andrew Lansley had recently announced a whole series of changes to the NHS with the aim of improving patient service. Supported by the Royal College of Midwives who agreed that there needed to be a 'seismic shift' in maternity services.

The Department of Health said that: 'Mothers should expect consistently excellent maternity services, no matter what time of day or night.' The department also recently confirmed that all maternity services would be co-ordinated by local GPs in a move to localise and improve care.

Published: 13:42PM GMT 01 Jan 2011

By: Baby & Father reporter