A Plum interview

Last week I interviewed Mary Jane Horton, editor in chief of Plum Magazine. Plum is a pregnancy magazine for the 35-and-older mom. It comes out twice a year, and is available at Borders and Barnes & Noble, as well as their website, www.plummagazine.com. Horton is an older mom herself - she had a son at 36 and a daughter at 40. She said the world is embracing the concept of older parenting. If you want to hear more from her, I have attached some audio files of our interview.

We talked about how Plum Magazine came about and what makes it different from a typical pregnancy mag.
Click here for her description. (1:58 minutes)

As I've noted before on this blog, there is an emerging concept of a male "biological clock," similar to what has been talked about for women for years. I asked her if, given that there are some genetic risks to being an older parent, if she was worried that she might be advocating for something that may have an adverse effect on the child. "I don't think when you're talking about from 35 to 45, no," she said. "I do worry about it older than that." But knowing at what age should there be cause for concern is difficult, she said. She suggested that prospective older parents talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits.
Hear more of her answer here. (1:15 minutes)

The magazine has information about healthy pregnancies, birthing information, and taking care of the child from birth to about six months. What can a man get out of the magazine? Men don't tend to read a lot about pregnancy, she said (how true!), but the magazine offers good, fact-checked information any parent can use. There's also a men's photo essay.
Hear more about the magazine here. (2:27 minutes)

To hear the full interview (about 9 minutes) click here.