What is the best age for a woman to give birth? According to sociologists the answer is 34.

女性的最佳生育年龄是多少岁?社会学家表示是34岁。

While her biological clock may be ticking, a mother of that age will enjoy far better long-term health than a woman who gives birth at 18.

尽管年龄在增长，但34岁生育的女性会比18岁生育的女性享有更好的长期健康。

The news will come as a relief to those who decided¹ to concentrate on their career before having a family.

对于那些决定先专注于事业再生孩子的人来说，这一消息会让他们松一口气。

Friends actress Lisa Kudrow and singer Cerys Matthews both embarked² on motherhood for the first time at 34.

老友记》女星丽莎·库卓和歌手塞里斯·马修斯在34岁时第一次当上了妈妈。

And at 70, Sophia Loren - who had her first son when she was 34 - receives as much praise for her health and beauty as she did as a young screen siren.

现年70岁的索菲娅·罗兰——在34岁时生下了第一个儿子——她的健康和美貌得到了人们的赞美，就像她年轻时在银幕上扮演的角色一样。

According to research in the US the health benefits of delaying motherhood increase year by year, with the best years for women to start bearing children being between the ages of 27 and 34.

根据美国的一项研究，推迟生育对健康的好处逐年增加，女性开始生育孩子的最佳年龄在27岁至34岁之间。

Women who wait actually enjoy better health, live longer and end up having healthier babies.

那些等到这个年龄才生育的女性其实健康状况更好，活得更久，孩子也更健康。

Academics looked at the link between the health problems of around 3,000 women and their age when giving birth for the first time.

学者们研究了约3000名女性的健康问题与她们首次生育时的年龄之间的联系。

Women who first gave birth at an early age developed more health problems, while women who delayed birth until 34 had fewer problems.

那些生头胎较早的女性健康问题比较多，而那些直到34岁才生头胎的女性问题较少。

Health benefits first started at 22 and continued to rise until 34. But problems began to increase again at 35.

如果22岁至34岁之间生育，可以给女性的健康带来诸多好处，但从35岁开始，问题又会增加。

"A woman who had her first child at 34 is likely to be, in health terms, 14 years younger than a woman who gave birth at 18," said Professor John Mirowsky, who led the research for the National Institute of Ageing and the National Institute of Mental Health.

约翰·米罗斯基教授说：“在健康方面，34岁生育头胎的女性，会比18岁生育头胎的女性年轻14岁。”他领导了国家老龄化研究所和国家心理健康研究所进行的这项研究。

While women aged 20 or 21 are more fertile and biologically fit, older mothers tend to be more mature and engage in less risky³ behaviour, and are more settled educationally, financially and emotionally, he said.

他说，20岁或21岁的女性生育能力可能更强，生理上更健康，但年龄较大的母亲往往更成熟，行为风险更小，在教育、经济和情感上都更稳定。

"Problems drop steadily⁴ the longer that first birth was delayed, up to about 34, then rise increasingly and steeply, particularly after the age of about 40," he said.

他说，“第一次生育推迟的时间越长，女性的问题就会稳步下降，一直到34岁左右，然后急剧上升，尤其是在40岁左右。”

The professor told the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour: "Studies suggest that early motherhood interferes⁵ with educational attainment⁶ and predisposes women to single-parenthood, unemployment and poverty.

约翰·米罗斯基教授在接受《健康与社会行为杂志》采访时说：“研究表明，早孕会影响女性的受教育程度，使她们更容易成为单亲妈妈、失业，并陷入贫困境地。”

"All of those are well-documented and substantial socio-economic predictors of poor health and multiplied risk of death."

“所有这些都证据充分，是健康状况不佳和死亡风险增加的重要社会经济预测因素。”

The average age for giving birth in the UK has risen from 27 to almost 30 in two decades.

20年来，英国的平均生育年龄从27岁上升到近30岁。