66 Year Old Woman Gives Birth...

[USA987, MSN, RN, NP]

66-Year-Old Romanian Woman Gives Birth

53 minutes ago World - AP

By ALISON MUTLER, Associated Press Writer

BUCHAREST, Romania - Doctors said a 66-year-old Romanian woman became the world's oldest woman recorded to give birth when she delivered a daughter by cesarean section. The child's twin sister was stillborn, they said.

AP Photo

Romanian doctors at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest said Adriana Iliescu, who was artificially inseminated, delivered her daughter-Eliza Maria-early Sunday.

The child was born more than six weeks short of a full 40-week pregnancy term, a hospital spokeswoman said. The girl weighed just 3.19 pounds, less than half the weight of an average newborn, and was in the intensive care unit but breathing on her own, the spokeswoman said.

Late Sunday, the baby had her first meal_ a few drops of glucose.

"We are happy that the mother and child are normal and we hope this will continue," said Dr. Bogdan Marinescu, who runs the hospital.

Doctors performed the emergency cesarean section after the smaller of Iliescu's twins died in the womb, the spokeswoman said. That child weighed just 1.54 pounds, she said.

"The mother is doing well-she is saying she has been given a new lease of life," the spokeswoman said, reading from a statement.

Iliescu underwent fertility treatment for nine years, including procedures to reverse the effects of menopause, before being artificially inseminated, Marinescu told reporters.

He said he successfully inseminated Iliescu on his first attempt, and that she initially was carrying triplets but lost the third fetus after nine to ten weeks.

Asked why he had let a 66-year-old woman become pregnant, Marinescu said: "She was in the right condition to carry a pregnancy."

There is no law in Romania stipulating a maximum age for artificial insemination, and he declined to comment on ethical questions regarding the pregnancy.

However, Marinescu said he was impressed by Iliescu's faith in God and her determination to have a child. Doctors say the mother and child may be released from the hospital in the next few weeks.

Guinness World Records lists two 63-year-old women who have given birth: Rosanna Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Arceli Keh of California in 1996. News reports, however, have put Della Corte's age at 62 when she gave birth.

[Sadie04]

There is already a thread about this in the CE forum...

[USA987, MSN, RN, NP]

There is already a thread about this in the CE forum...

Sorry...didn't go to the CE forum...we posted a few minutes apart...

[Fiona59]

Just because science can doesn't mean science should.

Who will look after the fatherless child in the future, if Mum dies before the girl reaches 18.

[Q.]

There is already a thread about this in the CE forum...

Not everyone can post in the CE forum...

[Elenaster]

Just because science can doesn't mean science should.

Exactly.

I don't know what the doctors who performed the IVF were thinking....is this some kind of bizarre experiement just to see what will happen? Does anyone really think it's healthy to go against mother nature so blatantly by reversing the effects of menopause so a woman pushing 70 can get pregnant?

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

Sounds like extreme selfishness to me. Poor baby.

[CHATSDALE]

article stated that the prenancy resulted from the sperm and egg of much younger people...if you are going to have a child that is not bio why not adopt and not have the risk to the child