Actress speaks out after announcing she’s pregnant at 54
"Boy Meets World" star Trina McGee is opening up about her fourth pregnancy at the age of 54.
McGee, who gave birth to her three younger children in her 20s, told "Good Morning America" she became pregnant again in her 50s naturally.
The actress, who played Angela Moore on the popular '90s TV sitcom, said she began trying natural remedies such as elixirs one year ago as she and her husband Marcello Thedford started trying to conceive.
The natural remedies Moore tried do not have medical data to support their use. However, it's still possible, though rare, for some women to become pregnant in their 50s without any help.
McGee, who is due early next year, shared her pregnancy publicly on Instagram, writing in a post Tuesday, "At the tender age of 54 I have found myself pregnant. Please bless us with your prayers for a safe delivery."
She said she hopes the news of her pregnancy in her 50s gives hope to other women.
"Honestly, I didn't think it was such a big deal ... and suddenly I realized it's very inspiration for a lot of women who are over 40, who are looking to conceive," McGee said. "When I was typing [my Instagram post], that's what I was feeling, like there's somebody out there that is dealing with this that might need a little help and inspiration."
Giving birth later in life is a growing reality in the United States. Since 2007, the birth rate has risen 19% for women in their early 40s, 11% for women in their late 30s and 2% for women in their early 30s. Birth rates for women in their 20s declined from 2015 to 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At age 54, McGee is almost two decades past the age -- 35 -- that doctors consider women to be of "advanced maternal age."
The age 35 was chosen decades ago by researchers trying to decide which pregnant women should get an amniocentesis, a prenatal test in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is removed from the sac surrounding the fetus for testing, Dr. Shilpi Mehta-Lee, a maternal fetal medical specialist at NYU Langone Medical Center, told ABC News previously.
At the age of 35, women were determined to have a greater risk of having a baby with Down syndrome than the risk of pregnancy loss from amniocentesis.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified OB-GYN, said that the likelihood of becoming pregnant in your 50s is "quite uncommon" for most women.
"If you were to look at someone in their 30s, there's going to be a 20% chance of getting pregnant with a cycle that's going to decrease to 5% at the age of 40 and 1% at the age of 45," said Shepherd, who does not treat McGee. "So you can see at the age of 54, the likelihood of becoming pregnant naturally is quite uncommon."
Shepherd also added there is not much medical data backing the use of natural remedies for pregnancies later in life, saying, "We do not have a lot of data that shows that natural remedies are going to increase your chances of becoming pregnant after the age of 45 and even to the 50th decade."
McGee said she lives a healthy lifestyle, which she said she believes helped her both in conceiving and having a healthy pregnancy so far. She said her main pregnancy symptoms now are nausea and fatigue.
With her three older children now in their 20s and 30s, McGee said she is looking forward to the different perspective she will bring to being a mom again in her 50s.
"I have all this wisdom now, and I know things. I made all these mistakes and I had some real triumphs with my other kids, too," she said. "So now I can combine all that, and I can pour it into this child, and I can prepare him or her for the realities ahead."
