While there are plenty of books and magazines for women who do not know what to expect while expecting, a new magazine geared to women having children later in life is finding a new route to its readers–gynecologists’ offices.
The inaugural issue of Plum, the first pregnancy magazine aimed at women over 35, is to arrive in doctors’ offices this fall. The magazine, which is to be produced by Groundbreak Publishing, is described as a joint effort with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists.
Rebekah Meola, Groundbreak’s principal, said older expectant mothers shared many of the same concerns as younger ones, but often had greater anxiety about medical complications, infertility and a return to work.
“This magazine is intended for women to relax and enjoy pregnancy,” Meola said. “By the time you are 40, you just have a different life than you do when you are in your 20s. You have different demands and are more established in your career.”
The 200-page glossy, to appear annually, may have the right advertising market. The publisher expects a circulation of at least 400,000 readers who are typically well-educated and affluent. But demographics may be against Plum.
“Baby Boomers are leaving the child-bearing age group,” said Joshua A. Copel, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine. “Most are reaching menopause rather than actively having children.”
There was no word on who would be on the magazine’s first cover. Is Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the Democratic vice presidential candidate, who began having children again in her late 40s, a possibility? Meola had a hard time keeping, well, mum. “We are actually working on it,” she said.
