This past January, a Redding, California woman gave birth to her 12th child. Hardly breaking news. What made headlines, however, is that the proud mother was a 62-years-old, grandmother of 20 with three great-grandchildren. She’s also legally blind.
Janis Wulf and her 48-year-old husband also have a three-year-old son together. Both babies were conceived though in-vitro-fertilization. Wulf, a diabetic, developed high blood pressure causing the doctors to perform an emergency C-section but otherwise the baby boy was born healthy.
And there are others. In July, 62-year-old child psychiatrist, Patricia Rashbrook, became the oldest woman in Britain to give birth. Although she had three adult children, her sixty year old husband became a father for the first time. In 1997, Liz Buttle, from Wales, was 60-years-old when she gave birth to a son and in Brooklyn, Angelina Calabro became a first time mom in 1995 at age 56. Two 63-year-old women also gave birth: Rosanna Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Acheli Keh of California in 1996.
As amazing as these births might seem, none of these women are the oldest woman to give birth. This honor goes to a 66-year old Romanian woman, Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in January 2005, making her the oldest woman of record to give birth. And expert predicts the number of older women giving birth will continue to rise.
When I read about these women all I could think of was WOW. I know how I felt being pregnant at 36 , I can’t even begin to imagine what these ladies went through and what they will face in the coming years . This got me thinking. When are you just too darn old to have a baby? Men can become fathers well into their sixties and later. My son’s father was 58 when he was born. For a man it seems to be a sign of virility but for women sometimes it seems like a stigma of sorts or at best an oddity when you pass say your mid forties. I would have to say for me personally I don’t think I could do it that late in life. I was one of those women who had a normal boring pregnancy. Until six weeks before my due date. Then my blood pressure shot up and my blood sugar levels spiked causing me to need an emergency C-section. I guess it’s a personal decision one that should be weighed against all the possible negative outcomes.
What do you think?