Older mothers are more likely to give birth to smarter children.

Researchers analysed data from three studies of children’s development that were conducted in 1958, 1970 and 2001.

Their ability to think, remember, pay attention and read were tested when they were 10/11 years old.

In the two earlier studies, children born to mothers aged 25 to 29 had the highest cognitive ability, the researchers found.

This was compared to women who were aged between 35 and 39 when they gave birth in the study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

However, in 2001 the findings were reversed, the London School of Economics and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research team found.

The researchers said: ‘Older mothers today tend to be more advantaged than younger mothers – for example, they are well educated, are less likely to smoke during pregnancy and are established in professional occupations.

‘This was not necessarily true in the past.’

Study author Dr Alice Goisis of the LSE, said: ‘Our research is the first to look at how the cognitive abilities of children born to older mothers have changed over time and what might be responsible for this shift, shares Daily Mail.

‘It is essential to better understand how these children are doing given that, since the 1980s, there has been a significant increase in the average age of women having their first child in industrialised countries.

‘Cognitive ability is important in and of itself but also because it is a strong predictor of how children fare in later life – in terms of their educational attainment, their occupation and their health.’

Older mums are often wiser, with so much more life experience. They have lived a full life, often done the career thing and are more than happy to settle down into home life.

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