Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani [1] was 44 years old when she welcomed Apollo Bowie Flynn to her growing brood of boys. She was already mom to Kingston and Zuma, who she had in her 30s.

Rachel Zoe

Rachel Zoe was 42 when she announced she was expecting her second child with husband Rodger Berman on her site, The Zoe Report [2].

"Before we head into the chaos of fashion season, we wanted to take a moment to officially confirm that we are expecting another child. We are beyond excited for Skyler to have a sibling and for us to fall in love all over again. We feel incredibly blessed."

Halle Berry

Halle Berry was 41 when she had her first child, daughter Nahla Ariela Aubry, in March 2008. Contrary to the difficulties so-called older mothers cope with during pregnancy, Berry told Harper's Bazaar [3]:

"My pregnancy was amazing. I was happy that whole time, I felt good, I had energy, I was like Superwoman. I wish I could feel like that for the rest of my life, that's how fantastic it was."

Berry was 47 when she gave birth to her second child, Maceo.

Kelly Preston

After the heartbreaking loss of their son [4] Jett at 16, Kelly Preston and John Travolta were thrilled when the mama delivered healthy baby Benjamin in 2010 — at the ripe young age of 48. Speaking to the Today show [5] shortly after the birth, Preston said:

"I didn't (consider the risks). I just considered that it was difficult. I never thought that would be me at all. So I think we're just really happy that we're so fortunate."

Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden was 44 when she had twins Hudson and Julitta Dee with husband Thaddaeus Scheel. Their first daughter, Eulala Grace, was born when Harden was 41.

Tina Fey

For everyone's favourite funny woman Tina Fey, the decision to have another baby [6] — Fey is mom to 5-year-old Alice — wasn't an easy one. In her memoir Bossypants, Fey explains her trepidation about having another baby, writing:

"Science shows that fertility and movie offers drop off steeply for women after 40."

Fey gave birth to baby number two, Penelope, at 41 years old.

Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek was 40 years old when she gave birth to her daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, with now-husband Francois-Henri Pinault. About not starting a family until she was 40, Salma said [7]:

"I'm a more fulfiled human being now, and I probably wouldn't have been 10 years ago. She gets a better mother for being born now."

Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon gave birth to her first child, daughter Eva Amurri, at 39 and then went on to welcome sons Jack Henry at age 42 and Miles Guthrie at age 45.

Kim Basinger

Fiercely protective and notoriously private, Kim Basinger had daughter Ireland — with then-hubby Alec Baldwin [8] — when she was 41.

Brooke Shields

After the birth of her first daughter, Rowan Francis, in 2003, Brooke Shields [9] suffered from a crippling case of postpartum depression [10]. After penning Down Came the Rain [11], her 2005 memoir about her battle with PPD, Shields had daughter Grier in 2006 at the age of 41.

Celine Dion

After multiple rounds of IVF and one devastating miscarriage, Celine Dion was 42 when she gave birth to twin boys, Eddy and Nelson, in 2010. That makes three boys for Dion and her husband, René Angélil, who also have 10-year-old René-Charles. In an interview with Us Weekly [12], Dion candidly discussed her understandable fears about a healthy pregnancy:

"My doctors had to constantly reassure me . . . Each week I had sonograms. I heard their heart beats . . . It's stressful but I'm relaxing. I look at my little belly. I do almost nothing. If you tell me I have to stay in bed, I will stay in bed until November, when the babies are born. To bring them into the world, there's nothing more important than that. It's incredible."

Molly Ringwald

John Hughes muse Molly Ringwald was 41 when she gave birth to twins, Roman Stylianos and Adele Georgiana, in 2009. Ringwald was already a mom to daughter Mathilda Ereni, now 7.

Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt was 40 years old when her daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, was born. Hunt discussed her challenges getting pregnant in a 2008 article for Ladies' Home Journal:

"It turned out to be tougher to get pregnant than I thought it would be. I tried for a long time, and it just didn't happen, to the point where getting pregnant became the greatest wish — and the greatest challenge — of my life. My fate wasn't to jump into the backseat of a car and have a baby. My boyfriend and I were on our last big try, and if the baby hadn't come, we would have adopted. But then I did get pregnant — in 2003."

Geena Davis

In 2002, at age 46, Geena Davis gave birth to daughter Alizeh. That worked out so well that, in 2004, the 48-year-old had twin sons, Kian and Kaiis.

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep [13] had her fourth child, Louisa Jacobson Gummer, in 1991 just before her 42nd birthday.

Nicole Kidman

Already a mother to Isabella and Connor, her children with ex Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman gave birth to her first biological child, Sunday Rose, at the age of 40 in 2008. About having a child after 40, Nicole said [14]:

"I raised two kids when I was in my 20s, but that was a different thing. I was a kid and still so young mentally and emotionally — a totally different mom. There is something about mothering late in life. A lot of it is I want to stay alive for Sunday. There is plenty of deep fear and emotion. Sunday has healed an enormous amount in me. It's a very private thing, but she just has."

Faith Margaret, Kidman's second daughter with husband Keith Urban, arrived via gestational surrogate in 2012.

Mariah Carey

One of the most anticipated celebrity births of 2011, 42-year-old Mariah Carey gave birth to twins Moroccan and Monroe in April that year. About trying for a successful pregnancy after a miscarriage, Mariah said [15]:

"The main thing I did that was tough, was to go on progesterone like every month . . . and then when I was pregnant, I had to stay with the progesterone for 10 weeks. It minimizes the chance of miscarriage by 50 percent."

Marcia Cross

Not content to merely play one on TV, Marcia Cross [16] desperately longed to be a real housewife. In less than one year, she got everything she wanted: Cross married Tom Mahoney in 2006 and gave birth to twin girls, Eden and Savannah, in February 2007 — just before she turned 45. Cross was very realistic about her chances of conceiving. Instead of a honeymoon, the couple began in vitro immediately after the wedding, and clearly it worked.

Beverly D'Angelo

In 2001, at age 49, Beverly D'Angelo gave birth to twins Anton and Olivia Pacino with Al Pacino [17].

Mira Sorvino

After a complicated pregnancy followed by a taxing labor and delivery, Mira Sorvino delivered her third child, Holden Paul Terry, in June 2009 at age 41 and her fourth child, daughter Lucia, in May 2012 at age 44. Sorvino and husband Chris Backus were already parents to Johnny Christopher King and Mattea Angel.

Cheryl Tiegs

Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs had her first child, Zack, at age 44 with then-husband Anthony Peck. Tiegs didn't push her luck — in 2000, when Tiegs was 52 and married to Rod Stryker, the couple had twin boys Jaden and Theo — via a surrogate.

Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly [18] was 40 years old when she and husband Paul Bettany [19] added a daughter to their all-boy brood. Agnes Lark joined big brothers Kai, 13, and Stellan, 7, in May 2011.

Mary Stuart Masterson

The third time was definitely the charm for Mary Stuart Masterson, who had her first baby, a boy, at age 43 with her third husband, actor Jeremy Davidson. Like many women who try to get pregnant a little later in life, Masterson had to work at it a bit, she admitted [20].

"I've been trying to get pregnant for a long time. I'm ready, I'm excited!"

The couple is clearly doing something right: they welcomed twins in August 2011 when the actress was 44, and she gave birth to a fourth child in October 2012, when she was 45.

Uma Thurman

After having two kids with ex-husband Ethan Hawke [21], Maya and Levon, Uma Thurman [22] welcomed her third, Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson, in July 2012 at 42 years old.

Julianne Moore

In April 2002, Julianne Moore welcomed her second child, Liv, at the age of 41. Her first child, Caleb, is five years older.

Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts [23] began building her family in 2007 with the birth of Sasha at the age of 39. She added to it a year later when Samuel was born in December 2008, and she was 40 years old.