Age ´no issue´ for oldest mother

Most British clinics will not offer IVF treatment to women aged over 50 A businesswoman who at 66 is to become Britain´s oldest mother says she does not have to defend her decision. Elizabeth Adeney, of Lidgate, Suffolk, is eight months´ pregnant after undergoing IVF treatment in Ukraine, according to the Sunday Mirror. She told the paper her age was not important, claiming it is "how I feel inside" that matters. Ms Adeney said she felt as young as 39 at times and was fitter than some of her younger employees. "It doesn´t interest me that I´m going to be the oldest mum in the country," she told the paper, before revealing she planned to give birth at a clinic in Cambridge. Most British clinics will not offer IVF treatment to women over the age of 50. ´Fitter´ Ms Adeney, who runs a manufacturing business near her home and will be 67 in July, said: "I have young girls working for me in my factory and I´m fitter than half of them. "I don´t have to defend what I´ve done. It´s between me, my baby and no-one else." Professor Severino Antinori, who helped 62-year-old Briton Patricia Rashbrook give birth three years ago, said he was shocked at the prospect of Ms Adeney having a child. "I respect the choice medically but I think anything over 63 is risky because you cannot guarantee the child will have a loving mother or family," he told The Sunday Times. However, Dr Gillian Lockwood told BBC Radio 4´s Today programme that improved life expectancy meant a healthy woman of 66 would probably live another 20 or 30 years. Using donor eggs from a younger woman reduced the risks of miscarriage or abnormalities to the child, said Dr Lockwood, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology. She said it would be "unfair" to discriminate on ground of age alone, adding: "We don´t prevent much younger women with serious health problems getting pregnant... even though they run much higher risks."

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I can´t imagine myself at 66 wanting to become a mother I´ll be off on my blue rinse cruises... but I can see some advantages for both the child and parent......mostly it´s about time and the time spent together. Some younger mums trying to establish careers and bring up a family find it hard to find the right balance between the two...one generally has to take the back seat!

But is the list of disadvantages ,including risk of loosing your life, too long to to consider motherhood at this age a viable option

I really don´t know what to say to this!  As for time spent together, she is a working business woman at the moment, so that time may be short and it could be the child minder who spends most time with the child.  Think of it from the point of the child - when the questions at school start, how old is your mum?  Uhmmm my mum is 72...........  "Is that your granny? No it is my mother".  And if that child is lucky it will get maybe 20 years with its mother.  I imagine my mother being a mother again, age 74, the child would be 8 - fancy dealing with an 8 year old and all their friends at 74.............

Why do we have to muck about with nature - nature stops us having children in our early 50´s for very good reasons.

It´s completely unnatural for a woman to be so much older than her child.  This woman is just being incredibly selfish - 67 is far too old to become a mother.  She´s probably spent her life doing everything else she wanted, travelling, career etc. and suddenly thought ´now what have I missed?  Oh - I know a baby - I´ll have one of those now, it´s never too late.´   Wrong, for so many reasons  

Well, actually, more like  great grandmother. 

Then, seeing as she is using donated eggs & sperm, IVF...thus the original genetic material is not hers, what is the definition of a mother?  The child will not have her genetic material.  Will the child have access to the biological egg & sperm doner´s information?  We are really going off on these things.  Some sperm donor children are not happy.....

It´s hypocritical of parents and medical professionals to assume that biological roots won´t matter to the "products" of the cryobanks´ service, when the longing for a biological relationship is what brings customers to the banks in the first place.

With Google this I found this...

"The fact that to do so would make 70-year-old Omkari Panwar the world´s oldest mother didn´t even cross her mind. "

For some strange reason she does not want to give interviews to the local press! 

Of course age should matter, I agree she was being totally selfish. Just think that she´s more likely to leave that child an orphan before it reaches puberty...a cruel woman...

 To me her age is the least of the concern.  She is well to do and probably will be able to leave a nice endowment for the child.  A nany will probably take care of the child.

...but I wonder, how many children in the world are there who could use a loving home? 

Also, I am very uncomfortable with the process wherein this child was conceived.  Not her egg (whose eggs?), whose sperm is it?, combined on a dish, they inplanted in her.....ewww....

If natural foods have trace elements, what about the process of the "trace" elements in the "natural process"?  We extract and make synthetic vitamines, but can they ever really substitute for the natural ones? I think we are missing something here.

My thoughts as well but in the UK she would be considered far too old to legally adopt a child. 

As for the nanny aspect - I would think its very likely she would employ one to look after her son/daughter.   But if she is so desperate to have a baby I wonder how she could bear entrusting someone else to look after it for her.  (Of course I may be doing her an injustice and she may be fully intending to leave work and devote herself solely to her baby - who knows?)

Look at all the grandmothers who end up raising their kids children.  I look at my mother who is 66 and she has more energy than I do not to mention patience.    She had my brother when she was 39 and said if should could do it over again, she would have waited to have kids later in life. 

However, I do have to agree with DD...I´m not real comfortable with the whole implanting procedure.  But then again, I never had an issue conceiving.