63 Year Old Woman to become Britain's Oldest Mother

[debbierlus]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060504/hl_nm/life_britain_mother_dc

Wow.

I don't know what I think about this...

I can't imagine being pregnant in my 60s. I had my kids young, and that was tough enough.

Surreal!

[Kutjara]

1. Quite apart from the medical issues...

...which must be considerable, it just strikes me as a bit, well, selfish. Before I get accused of sexism, I think that men siring children in their 60s and 70s is equally irresponsible. You are almost guaranteeing that the child will have to endure the death of a parent at an impressionable age, and that's not something to be taken lightly.

I'd be interest to read other people's views on this.

[LiberalPartisan]

3. I am in complete agreement wih you. n/t

[Kailassa]

6. I used to think that your kids only needed you till they were 20 or so.

"The case of the English woman gave me great joy," Antinori said. "She should live for at least 20 to 25 years -- we are not giving birth to an orphan."

But now my oldest daughter is 32, my grand-daughter is 13, and they still both need me. I'm learning that there is a hell of a lot more to mothering than just raising children to be adults. When my daughter, who is single and working full-time, has trouble with her daughter, I don't know what she would do if I was not there to step in and help. In some ways, life has become harder for mothers, and grandmothers are needed more than ever.

Studies have been done on the importance of grandmothers, and found that in the societies tested, the existance of a maternal grandmother had an enormous beneficial effect on the health and survival of grandchildren.
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:Nu1jAKp3_IwJ:www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2004-004.pdf+grandmother+study&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=37

I'm sure many parents and children can back me up on this, that the last thing kids need for a 21st birthday present is for their mother to be saying: "great, you're an adult now. Time for me to drop dead. Ta-daa."

[WePurrsevere]

2. Although I think over 60 would be too old for me people are living longer

and staying healthier so I'm not sure I can say that another woman should make the same choice as I would. Hopefully, she's discussed the possibility of guardianship with her adult children just in case.

Although there is an understandable concern about children of older parents having a higher potential of being "orphaned" at a young age I'm not sure it really is any more so then saying that people in high risk careers (military, fire fighters, cops, etc) or are physically disabled/ill should not have children for the same reasons.

I guess my quandary is that although a part of me thinks "holy smoke what the heck are they thinking?" there is another louder part of me that knows all too well that there are NO guarantees about how long you will live and whether your children will be left with both or no parents at any given age. How many children are without a Mommy and/or Daddy because they're in the military? Do people in war zones such as Iraq stop having babies? Even in a "normal" life death happens at a variety of ages. My adopted mother, although in decent condition at that point, was a "brittle" diabetic and had a heart issue when she and my father adopted me... she died after slowly getting worse and having strokes when I was almost 13 (she was almost 52). My X-SIL and her husband had a daughter and when she was still a young child he died of leukemia in his 20's.

I know that if I were to become pregnant at my age (46 so it's still a natural possibility) my eldest daughter (a 28 y/o new mommy) has already said she'd take in her sibling and raise it if something were to happen to us... just as we as grandparents would take in her child if something were to happen to her... which brings up another thought... aside from the physical issue of giving birth... how is having a baby at 63 all that different from so many grandparents that are ending up bringing up their grandchildren now?

(after re-reading this and running "check spelling" I'm off for another cuppa :hangover: I reallyneed to wake up more.)

[Kutjara]

4. All excellent points...

...that I hadn't considered. Quite right that nobody knows how long they'll live and people in risky occupations have a similar risk of death as older people. In that light, having children very late seems no more irresponsible than the choices many other people make every day. I'm not sure if this means that there's nothing 'wrong' with older people having children, or whether it means that people in general should consider their general health and risk of dying more carefully when thinking about having children.

I suppose my only other objection would be the higher risk of birth defects or complications, but presumably those can be managed as well.

[Vinca]

5. She needs her head examined. nt

[Kailassa]

8. I doubt that's the end that the doctors will be looking at

in her next few months of check-ups.

[Triana]

7. Ugh....

...I'm against younger people having too many babies, much less anyone over 50. This seems pretty silly.

[enough]

9. This woman will be 83 years old when her child turns 20.

I am a 61-year old woman with 83-year-old parents. From my perspective, this woman is performing a selfish, thoughtless act. She should not put another person in the position of being the child of a very old parent at such a very young age.

Elderly parents require a huge amount of patience, diplomacy, commitment, humor, psychological resilience, and TIME. No one should be asked to provide this for aged parents at that early time of life.

If she wants more youth in her life, or someone to love, there are endless ways to connect with young people who need her.