Post by goldengun on Jan 31, 2007 12:40:30 GMT -5
In my opinion, a new mom over the age of 40 is so risky, I know that there are some mothers who do it, but the risk of problems in the children increase greatly due to the mother's age.
The woman in the below story became a mother of twin baby boys at the age of 67 - I think for the kids that's awful, she's old enough to be their grandmother, possibly great-grandmother.
But what's more intriguing is what she is now looking for in her life, and the life for her new twins. It's the last line in the story....read on...
Jan 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Bob Pool
Maria L. La Ganga
LOS ANGELES–The walls of his fertility clinic are lined with happy snapshots of moms and dads proudly showing off their little bundles of joy.
But there was little jubilation for Dr. Vicken Sahakian as he acknowledged that one of his patients has become the world's oldest new mother.
"Congratulations? It was unintentionally successful," Sahakian said Monday. "She lied to me. She falsified records, knowing my cutoff for single women is 55 ... I don't think the last chapter has been closed, either. She could die 10 years from now. What will happen to the children?"
Carmela Bousada, a 67-year-old retired Spanish department store clerk, gave birth to twin boys Dec. 29 in Barcelona. Over the weekend, the single mother admitted she deceived Sahakian in order to become pregnant.
The birth of 3-pound, 7-ounce Pau and 3-pound, 5-ounce Christian – who were premature – has roiled the world of fertility medicine and raised the question: How old is too old?
Dr. Richard Paulson, director of the Fertility Clinic at the University of Southern California, said the easier determination is the physiological one. Women over 50 face an increased risk of pregnancy complications, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. "That reaches an almost prohibitive level at 55," he said.
Paulson's clinic has required a picture identification before treating any patients since he unwittingly helped a woman in her 60s become pregnant. When she started treatment, she said she was 53 – two years younger than USC's cutoff. She underwent a barrage of screening tests and produced medical records attesting to her age.
But when she became pregnant, she fessed up. Her healthy daughter was born in 1996, when the woman was 63, making hers the oldest successful pregnancy at that time.
Paulson believes a cutoff of 55 is appropriate but resists the call for greater regulation that might create a legal age limit.
"As soon as you get into an area of zero tolerance, it's easy to find a case when regulation becomes wrong or harmful," Paulson said. "To go and try to interfere with someone's reproductive rights is a very touchy area."
One question raised by critics is whether aging parents will be able to cope with toddlers at retirement age. But to Jan Andersen, who runs www.mothersover40.com, that should be the least of society's worries.
"That's like taking a 25-year-old parent with seven kids living on welfare, who smokes and abuses her children and saying that she's a good parent just because she's young," she wrote.
That is a sentiment shared by Bousada, who in an interview Sunday with London's News of the World newspaper said age should not be a barrier to becoming a new mother.
"Everyone has to have children at the right time for them. This was the right time for me," she said. "It was something I've always dreamed of."
Sahakian said Bousada claimed to be 55 and had Spanish lab paperwork sent to his office that indicated that was her age. She received eggs from an 18-year-old brunette and sperm from a blond, blue-eyed Italian American. "I feel duped and taken advantage of," he said.
Bousada is now living with her infant sons in a one-bedroom apartment after selling her home for $60,000 (U.S.) to pay the cost of travelling and in-vitro fertilization. Her Los Angeles medical costs totalled $10,000 in doctor fees, plus $30,000 for the egg donation.
Her pregnancy wasn't easy, Bousada told the British media. She was rushed to a hospital after collapsing in a supermarket. Physicians were so concerned when it came time for the Caesarean delivery that they summoned family members to her bedside. Born prematurely – they were due Feb. 8 – the twins had to be put in incubators.
Bousada said she is looking for a younger man to marry and be the father of her sons.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
The woman in the below story became a mother of twin baby boys at the age of 67 - I think for the kids that's awful, she's old enough to be their grandmother, possibly great-grandmother.
But what's more intriguing is what she is now looking for in her life, and the life for her new twins. It's the last line in the story....read on...
Jan 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Bob Pool
Maria L. La Ganga
LOS ANGELES–The walls of his fertility clinic are lined with happy snapshots of moms and dads proudly showing off their little bundles of joy.
But there was little jubilation for Dr. Vicken Sahakian as he acknowledged that one of his patients has become the world's oldest new mother.
"Congratulations? It was unintentionally successful," Sahakian said Monday. "She lied to me. She falsified records, knowing my cutoff for single women is 55 ... I don't think the last chapter has been closed, either. She could die 10 years from now. What will happen to the children?"
Carmela Bousada, a 67-year-old retired Spanish department store clerk, gave birth to twin boys Dec. 29 in Barcelona. Over the weekend, the single mother admitted she deceived Sahakian in order to become pregnant.
The birth of 3-pound, 7-ounce Pau and 3-pound, 5-ounce Christian – who were premature – has roiled the world of fertility medicine and raised the question: How old is too old?
Dr. Richard Paulson, director of the Fertility Clinic at the University of Southern California, said the easier determination is the physiological one. Women over 50 face an increased risk of pregnancy complications, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. "That reaches an almost prohibitive level at 55," he said.
Paulson's clinic has required a picture identification before treating any patients since he unwittingly helped a woman in her 60s become pregnant. When she started treatment, she said she was 53 – two years younger than USC's cutoff. She underwent a barrage of screening tests and produced medical records attesting to her age.
But when she became pregnant, she fessed up. Her healthy daughter was born in 1996, when the woman was 63, making hers the oldest successful pregnancy at that time.
Paulson believes a cutoff of 55 is appropriate but resists the call for greater regulation that might create a legal age limit.
"As soon as you get into an area of zero tolerance, it's easy to find a case when regulation becomes wrong or harmful," Paulson said. "To go and try to interfere with someone's reproductive rights is a very touchy area."
One question raised by critics is whether aging parents will be able to cope with toddlers at retirement age. But to Jan Andersen, who runs www.mothersover40.com, that should be the least of society's worries.
"That's like taking a 25-year-old parent with seven kids living on welfare, who smokes and abuses her children and saying that she's a good parent just because she's young," she wrote.
That is a sentiment shared by Bousada, who in an interview Sunday with London's News of the World newspaper said age should not be a barrier to becoming a new mother.
"Everyone has to have children at the right time for them. This was the right time for me," she said. "It was something I've always dreamed of."
Sahakian said Bousada claimed to be 55 and had Spanish lab paperwork sent to his office that indicated that was her age. She received eggs from an 18-year-old brunette and sperm from a blond, blue-eyed Italian American. "I feel duped and taken advantage of," he said.
Bousada is now living with her infant sons in a one-bedroom apartment after selling her home for $60,000 (U.S.) to pay the cost of travelling and in-vitro fertilization. Her Los Angeles medical costs totalled $10,000 in doctor fees, plus $30,000 for the egg donation.
Her pregnancy wasn't easy, Bousada told the British media. She was rushed to a hospital after collapsing in a supermarket. Physicians were so concerned when it came time for the Caesarean delivery that they summoned family members to her bedside. Born prematurely – they were due Feb. 8 – the twins had to be put in incubators.
Bousada said she is looking for a younger man to marry and be the father of her sons.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Somewhere on Cloud 33
