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Latest Surrogacy News
Growing trend: new mothers in
their 50s, 60s
Va. woman, 55, has triplets as
surrogate for daughter
By Michael Stroh Sun Staff December
30, 2004The birth of triplets
to a 55- year-old woman this week is drawing attention
to a small but growing phenomenon: older women becoming
pregnant.
Tina Cade, a university administrator
in Richmond, Va., acted as a surrogate for her daughter,
a Johns Hopkins doctor who couldn't conceive. Other
women in their 50s - and even 60s - are becoming
pregnant to have children of their own.
But as more older women turn to
science to beat their biological clocks and fulfill
their desire to become mothers, it is raising a number
of medical and ethical questions.
"How realistic is it for a young woman
today to expect to delay her childbearing into the fifth
or sixth decade of her life?" Linda Heffner, an
obstetrician-gynecologist at Boston University School of
Medicine, wrote last month in a New England Journal of
Medicine article on the topic.
While by no means common, babies
delivered by women in their 50s and beyond "is not like
something you're going to see on Ripley's Believe It or
Not," said Eleanor Nicoll of the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine.
Last month, for example, a 56-
year-old New York City woman gave birth to twins. A
59-year- old Georgia great-grandmother, meanwhile, is
expected to deliver her own set of twins any day now -
44 years after her firstborn arrived.
Oldest, at 63
In 1996, a California woman
became the oldest known mother in the United States when
she delivered her first child at age 63.
In 2002, the last year for which there
are solid numbers, the National Center for Health
Statistics reported 263 births among women 50 and older,
a 10 percent increase from the year before. By
comparison, the total number of babies born in the
United States in 2002 was 4,021,726.
Advances in in-vitro fertilization and
other reproductive technologies have made it
increasingly possible for women in their 40s and beyond
to become pregnant. Even women who have experienced
menopause can use the eggs of younger donors.
But there are hazards. Older women,
Heffner notes, are at higher risk for pregnancy-induced
high blood pressure, or pre-eclampsia. They are also
more likely to develop gestational diabetes and deliver
by Caesarean section. Although increasingly common,
C-sections are still considered major surgical
procedures that pose risks to both mother and child.
More abnormalities
Older women who attempt to
become pregnant also have a higher chance of having a
baby with Down syndrome and other chromosomal
abnormalities. To prevent this, many older women who
want to become pregnant turn to eggs donated by women in
their 20s and 30s, which have much lower risks for
abnormalities.
And older women who turn to hormones
and in-vitro fertilization to become pregnant frequently
produce twins and triplets, who have a greater chance of
arriving prematurely.
"If you're going to use technology to
beat the biological clock, you have to ask yourself: Is
it in the best interest of the child?" said Arthur
Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Parenting demands
Couples, he said, need to
think about questions such as who will take care of the
children if the parents die before their offspring are
grown. Also: How will a child feel if mom needs a walker
to prowl the sidelines of a soccer match?
"If your child is entering junior high
school when you're entering Medicare, I think there
could be a problem there," said Caplan.
Susan Wolf, a professor of law and
medicine at the University of Minnesota, said that women
also need to think about the energy demands of caring
for a newborn.
For a woman in her 50s or older, "It
can be hard to get down and up off the floor a million
times a day or be sleep-deprived," said Wolf, who became
a first-time mother five years ago at age 45.
With the number of older mothers
growing, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
recently began a campaign to make women more aware of
the health and social consequences of delaying
motherhood.
Giving up the baby
Surrogacy also raises
potentially thorny questions, experts say. Even a
grandmother might experience trouble relinquishing
control after the baby is born. Another question parents
will confront, says Wolf, is this: "In whose tummy did I
grow and what does that mean?"
On ABC's Good Morning America
yesterday, Cade explained that she and her husband came
up with the surrogate idea and suggested it to their
daughter, Camille Hammond, a resident in preventative
medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health.
"We had seen a movie many years ago
that showed a similar predicament," Cade said.
Hammond had received a diagnosis a
decade ago of endometriosis, a condition that affects
the lining of the uterus and makes it difficult to
become pregnant.
Although Hammond initially resisted
her mother's suggestion, after four years and six
unsuccessful in-vitro treatments, she and her husband,
Jason, a resident in orthopedic surgery at Hopkins
Hospital, eventually relented.
In-vitro fertilization
Cade underwent in-vitro
fertilization in the spring at Greater Baltimore Medical
Center's Fertility Center. Dr. Ricardo Yazigi, the
center's associate director, said the Richmond woman was
"among the oldest" patients the center has treated,
although he added that it's becoming less unusual to see
women in their later 40s walking through the door.
Cade gave birth at a Richmond hospital
on Tuesday by Caesarean section to two boys and a girl,
simultaneously becoming both their gestational mother
and genetic grandmother. The babies, who have yet to be
named, ranged from 3 pounds, 12 ounces to 4 pounds, 10
ounces.
"We just knew we had to do something
to make a difference to Jason and Camille," Cade told
ABC yesterday morning. "And we think that this has."
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