59-year-old mother has twins

[wowie]

A NEW JERSEY woman has given birth to twins at the age of 59 — 18 months after having her last baby.

Lauren Cohen, who turns 60 on August 11, becomes the oldest woman in America to bear twins, and equals the world record set by an unnamed British woman on Christmas Day 1993.

Ms Cohen gave birth to a boy and a girl, named Gregory and Giselle, at the New York Presbyterian Hospital on May 22, a hospital spokesman said. “I’m happy. I come out healthy, and the two babies came out healthy,” Ms Cohen said at leaving the hospital.

Ms Cohen, who has a 27-year-old daughter, Renée, by an earlier marriage, decided to start another family after after marrying a much younger husband, Frank Garcia, who did not have children.

She said she then wanted her youngest daughter, Raquel, to have a sibling, and the twins were conceived in vitro with a donor egg. “I wasn’t expecting twins. But that’s what happened.” The birth required emergency surgery when the placenta broke through the uterus wall two days before a scheduled Caesarian section. But there will be no further children: the surgeons also carried out a hysterectomy.

Ms Cohen takes the record for the oldest women to give birth to twins in America from Rosie Swain, 58, a teacher and great-grandmother in Alabama. Adriana Iliescu, a retired history professor in Romania who is the oldest woman ever to bear a child, was carrying twin girls when she gave birth on January 16, 2005 at the age of 66. One daughter survived but the other twin was stillborn.

Mr Garcia, the father of the new-born twins, praised his wife. “Lauren has guts. She’s amazing,” he told the New York Post.“It was one of my dreams to have baby twins. It’s like a miracle.”

Comments

[roma-apollo.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry but that's just ridiculous. There's a reason why nature tails off our ability to conceive and that's called - sleep deprivation!!! I'm 41 and I had to get up twice last night with my 22 year old who's covered in nettle-rash so as to lotion her up and administer the right noises and make her feel better and it nearly killed me!!! lol!!! Imagine trying to feed, change and placate two mewling babies at her age - she's evidently insane.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

With a toddler no less in the house.

Crazy.

[urgayleswoman.livejournal.com]

That's just nuts.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Ya have 'em when you're young so you can keep up with them. At that age they'd be running circles around me!

[urgayleswoman.livejournal.com]

I know!

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

This lady, hubby & three kids were on the today show this morning.

[tigerlilysvs.livejournal.com]

More power to her and thank god it's not me! Even when I was young I didn't have the engergy to chase after kids - one of many reasons I didn't have any.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

I find it extremely selfish to have kids at that age.

[vigwig.livejournal.com]

That's just selfish IMO. She'll be 70 when they're only ten, that's just too old to be a mom to young kids. The doctor who did the fertility work is irresponsible, there s/b an age limit.

[caranglamiel.livejournal.com]

I guess if it was that important to them...but I personally couldn't handle it at 60. Oy!

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

That's not right. Sure she could live until she's 100, and be very healthy, but there's a big risk the kids will grow up without a mum. Or be forced to take care of a senile mum, changing diapers and stuff, in their teens. Not right.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

I agree with you 100%. She says having a husband who is a lot younger was one of the deciding factors to do this. Well hello they'll still be without a mother!

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Well, it is better than if both parents had been old, but. Children need a mum!