<a href="http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/newsfeatures/article/1111287--celebrity-culture-puts-unrealistic-veneer-on-older-motherhood">MOTHERHOOD AFTER 40 </a>Celebrity culture puts unrealistic veneer on older motherhood January 6, 2012 How are older mothers portrayed in popular culture? This is a trick question, of course, since older mothers are rarely depicted on television and film. In fact, if aliens are now monitoring the planet’s TV networks and movie theatres for insight into human reproduction, they will conclude teen pregnancy is epidemic, multiple births (anywhere from four to eight) are routine, women in their 30s care more about work than family and, without exception, nobody over 40 ever gets pregnant. But in the real world, “Midlife Moms,” as they are sometimes called, are the fastest-growing demographic giving birth across most of the West. Yet our attitude toward them often seems mired in the dark ages. “I actually believe that society has developed a more negative attitude towards older mothers over the past two decades,” says Jan Andersen, an author and creator of the website mothersover40.com. “Before advances in the medical field, no one used to bat an eyelid if a woman in her forties or fifties had a baby. My grandmother’s neighbour, for example, was 53 when she had her last baby in the late 1950s, yet it was not considered unusual.” A key difference between then and now is our obsession with age. “Most people don’t know this or don’t think about it but Lucy was over 40 when she had Little Ricky in one of the most famous television episodes of all time,” says Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University, referring to the legendary CBS sitcom, I Love Lucy. “(Lucille Ball) was born in 1911 and that child was born on January 19 of 1953.” There was no fuss, adds Thompson, because “Lucy never advertised her age.” But modern celebrities, who inhabit a world in which youth itself creates a halo effect, have no say in the matter.