egging them on

There has been a lot of debate in recent months about older Mums, about whether a woman can juggle a career and a family, whether a woman with children can be as successful as a male in business or politics.

That debate will heat up even  more with the new claim by an Australian fertility specialists who has predicted we will soon see a new generation of children born to mothers aged 50 or over.

Dr. David Molloy, from the Queensland Fertility Group, says technology such as IVF and egg freezing is making it possible for women to become mothers much later in life.

Recently, a woman in her sixties lied about her age and said she was 52 so she could qualify under the  IVF deadline  and gave birth to a healthy child.  She will be in her eighties by the time her child reaches adulthood. That’s if she is still alive.

There are a lot of issues her ethical, moral and medical. Many, if not most, women wanting to have a baby in their forties know they have increased risk of that baby having Down’s Syndrome which used to be known as Mongoloid.

What they are often not aware of is the dramatic increase in their chances of having a miscarriage.

A lot of people find the idea of a fifty-year-old woman having a baby wrong, even distasteful. One argument is that the child will grow up with elderly parents and may lose their mother early in life. True. But tragically a 30-year-old mother can die of cancer or in a car accident.

On the male side we have the increasing occurrence of older Hollywood stars and wealthy businessmen having children with a second or third  younger wife. There have been recent reports that the ‘tired sperm’ (for want of a better word) of an older man can medically affect the baby’s long-term health.

And then there’s the financial issue. One that convinced many women to put off having a baby for years in the first place. They want to establish a comfortable life of their own first. And an older couple can often say their child will want for nothing financially. Best schools, best holidays, etc. Whether that produces the best kids is arguable.

So with surrogate mothers and IVF and frozen eggs and new technology maybe the old song will come true: ‘ I’m me own Grandpa’.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2007