Men must start a family before they become 35 years old

Men must start a family before they reach 35 years of age to avoid the danger of unborn babies, researchers say.

A study of 40 million babies found that the risk of birth complications begins to rise when fathers are in their mid - 30s and considerably grow from 45 years of age.

But the new study, published in the British Medical Journal, shows that men must also take responsibility.

Researcher Professor Michael Eisenberg of Stanford University Medical School said: We try to look at the mother's factors in measuring birth-related risks.

But this study shows that having a healthy child is a team sport and father age also contributes to the baby's health”.

He said that if the father is 35 years old, there is a slight increase in birth defects, but the risk increases more severely as men become 40 and 50 years old.

This is because every year a man ages, he accumulates into two new mutations in his sperm DNA.

Compared with fathers between 25 and 34, babies born to males between the ages of 35 and 44 were about five percent more likely to be born premature or low birth weights.

Men aged 45 and older were 14 percent more likely to be admitted into intensive care, 14 percent more likely to be born prematurely, 18 percent more likely to have seizures, and 14 percent more likely to have a small birth load.

If a father was 50 years old or older, the likelihood that their baby needs ventilation after birth has increased by 10 percent, and the chances of seeking intensive care increased by 28 percent.

For males 45 years of age and older, their partners were 28 percent more likely to develop gestation diabetes, compared with fathers between 25 and 34.

He said possible biological mechanisms at the game at this point are unclear, but he doubts the mother's placenta has a role.

About 18 percent of children born in England and Wales have a father 40 years old and older, according to the National Statistics Office.

The average age of fathers in 2016 was 33.3, nearly four years older than 1974, when they were 29.4.

The age of mothers increased at almost the same rate as they were at an average age of 30.4 in 2016 and 26.4 in 1974, an increase of four years. But Professor Eisenberg said that absolute dangers are still relatively low.

He compared the increased risks of buying lottery tickets. If you buy two lottery tickets instead of one, your chances of winning double, so it has increased by 100 percent”, he said.