Three years ago, the 47-year old rural Minnesota woman went to an herbalist to treat the first symptoms of menopause.

Instead, she got pregnant with Jack, now two years old.

It was a wonderful surprise for Marion Dressen and her husband, who were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

The couple had given up trying to have a baby long ago. After all those years, it was a bit of a shock, Dressen said.

But we were excited at the same time.

On June 28 of 2006, Dressen gave birth to Megan, selecting the name for her daughter they picked out when trying to conceive 20 years earlier.

She said she sees many advantages of being a mom in her 40s.

Being older, I hve learned what's really important in life, Dressen says. I'm more patient and I don't sweat the small stuff.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, older moms like Dressen are becoming more common.

With a toddler and a newborn, Dressen said she is glad she's fit enough to have the energy she needs.

She jokes while she can keep up with the kids, she makes some different choices than younger moms who put the kids to bed and then go out on the town.

When the kids go to bed, we go to bed, Dressen said.

Dressen said she stays active so she can maintain the physical health she'll need to be the mother of teens in her 60s.

This will help us to keep young, she laughs.

Life has changed for Dressen. She used to go on mission trips to Africa, spend time gardening and take plenty of time for herself.

I used to get up in the morning, and do my hair and makeup right away, she said. Now it's good if I get a shower some days.

Still, she says she'll trade the weeds in her garden any day for her two children.

No flower that blooms gives me the feeling of seeing these two little faces, Dressen said. It Is a change for the better.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on ArgusLeaderOnline.com
Unfortunately the link no longer works.
Originally posted on June 18, 2012.
Photo credit: argusleaderonline.com - All rights reserved

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Couple's Guide To In Vitro Fertilization: Everything You Need To Know To Maximize Your Chances Of Success
by Liza Charlesworth

-- Despite the fact it is an expensive, complex, emotionally draining, and often last-ditch fertility treatment, there are now over 250,000 couples who consider in vitro fertilization (IVF) every year; more than 125,000 couples decide to undergo it.

While dry, clinical information is available, there is a gaping need for sisterly advice from someone who's been through the process herself.

From evaluating care and preparing for the complicated process to understanding egg retrieval and embryo transfer; from tips on taking medications and coping with hormonal surges to dealing with the emotional aspects of the grueling IVF process, Liza Charlesworth's The Couple's Guide to In Vitro Fertilization offers knowing, sensitive counsel.

Full of hard-won personal wisdom and the most up-to-date medical information explained in layman's terms, this invaluable guide is sure to become recommended reading for couples trying to conceive and their families alike.

Paperback: 312 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Couple's Guide To In Vitro Fertilization

After almost three decades of marriage, spent in the harrowing embrace of barrenness, and with three husbands, 52-year-old Alhaja Owolabi Kareem against all odds and human expectations not only got pregnant but also gave birth to a bouncing baby girl.

For the couple, Alhaji and Alhaja Owolabi Kareem of Ajah in the Eti Osa Local Government Area Lagos State, November 26, 2010, will forever be remembered as a day of celebration of miracles.

It was the day on which the 52-year-old Alhaja Owolabi Kareem put to bed a bouncing baby girl. It was the first in her life.

Like most women of her age, Alhaja Ajah as she is fondly called by her fellow members at the Saints Gospel Church of Christ Hand of Fire, Ago along Igando-Ikotun Road, Lagos had entered menopause. Some derisively call it meno-stop!

After being married for about 30 years and with no fruit to show for her conjugal labor, she had lost all hopes of ever having a baby but for her newfound faith.

Five years earlier, the 52-year-old businesswoman had been introduced to a new faith by a friend who had watched as she struggled desperately and in despair but in vain for a child.

Prior to this, it had been one long struggle filled with anguish, fears, tears, humiliation and even desperation.

According to Alhaja, she had visited all known hospitals and medical practitioners both orthodox and unconventional, local and foreign all to no avail.

It was after she had reached menopause and lost hope, she decided to heed her friend's advice of seeking further spiritual help at a particular worship center where she worships currently.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on CompassNewspaper.com
Originally posted on December 5th, 2010.
Photo credit: CompassNewspaper.com - All rights reserved

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies
by Randine Lewis

-- Infertility affects one out of six couples today.

Dr. Lewis presents a groundbreaking alternative approach to infertility, explaining how she used traditional Chinese medicine to treat her own infertility, successfully conceiving and giving birth to two children.

In Lewis's experience, women who have undergone three to six months of the dietary changes, herbs and acupuncture treatments become pregnant with no further effort.

Lewis intersperses her somewhat technical examination of the program with anecdotes about her patients, weaving in discussions on diet, herbal supplements, acupuncture, older women and problems related to infertility.

Paperback: 320 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Infertility Cure

ANAHEIM – To Carolyn Pelcak, age is just a state of mind.

When she wanted to have a child at 52 years old, friends and family said she was crazy.

But now that the 55-year-old waitress and lawyer has given birth Saturday to her second child, Alexandre, she counts herself among the oldest women in Orange County to have a baby.

And the single mom is loving every minute of it.

People say, 'Oh, you must be crazy. You're old enough to be a grandmother,' Pelcak said Thursday, cradling Alexandre against her chest in her Anaheim home. But the alternative is that these children wouldn't be born.

Pelcak always dreamed of having children. She married in 1987 when she was in her late 30s. She tried immediately to get pregnant but to no avail. In 1991, she and her husband decided to see a fertility specialist, first in Irvine and later in Glendale.

There, Dr. Charles March tried several times to artificially inseminate Pelcak, but it wasn't working. Her husband was giving up hope.

He said maybe we were too old, Pelcak said. But I wasn't prepared to let go of my passion. I'm not someone who gives up very easily.

Meanwhile, another dream was taking root. Pelcak wanted to be a lawyer. Her co-workers at Disneyland's exclusive Club 33, where she still works, were stunned. And her doctor said she couldn't have the baby and go to law school at the same time.

I just told him, 'I want to do both. I'm sure there's a way.'

March came up with a solution: harvest Pelcak's eggs, create embryos using her husband's sperm and freeze them until she finished law school.

And that's what she did. While her embryos sat in a bank at a hospital in Century City, Pelcak spent four years at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton.

Law school took its toll. Her marriage began to crumble while her medical bills soared. Pelcak estimates she spent more than $100,000 on fertility procedures.

After graduation, she worked to pay off her bills. She and her husband separated. But her dream of a family never died.

In 1998, after she passed the bar, Pelcak tried for a baby.

First, she miscarried. The second time, the procedure didn't take. Pelcak almost gave up, but her mother said the third time's a charm.

Thank God I listened, Pelcak said.

When a pregnant Pelcak walked into Dr. E. Michael Linzey's office at St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange, the doctor was doubtful.

I had trepidation about a 52-year-old woman having a baby, said Linzey, assistant medical director of the hospital's perinatal program.

But just by getting pregnant, Pelcak had already beaten the odds. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, success rates for assisted reproduction drop dramatically as women age. For women under 35, more than a third of procedures result in live births. By age 41 or 42, that number drops to 10 percent.

In 2001, she gave birth to daughter Natasja through in vitro fertilization.

Her first words to Linzey while she was on the operating table: Get ready, doc, I might have another.

And once again, she did in vitro fertilization and the baby was brought to term. But mom was beginning to show early signs of preeclampsia, a hypertensive condition which can lead to illness and death in mothers and newborns.

Six months before she got pregnant again, she told me she wanted to do this, Linzey said. I took a deep breath and said, 'Are you sure, Carolyn?' But knowing this patient, and from everything, I could see there was no reason not to go ahead with it, so we did.

As for societal criticism, Pelcak is getting her share. Complete strangers tell her they're appalled that she would do such a thing.

But Pelcak, who has a friend to help with childcare, doesn't mind. I put it in God's hands. If you're meant to be a mother, you will.

[Sorry, full article is no longer available online]

Photo credit: OCregister.com
All rights reserved

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Pregnancy Miracle
by Lisa Olsen

-- A 279-page, instantly downloadable e-book presenting a 5-step, sure-fire, 100% guaranteed, clinically proven holistic and ancient Chinese system for permanently reversing your infertility and your partner's infertility disorders and getting pregnant quickly, naturally and safely within 2-4 months without drugs, dangerous surgeries, side effects, or expensive infertility treatments.

It's probably the most powerful infertility reversal system ever developed, and currently the best-selling e-book of its kind on the entire Web!

Here's what the author Lisa Olson had to say about her incredible program:
After 14 years of trial, error, and experimentation, I finally discovered the answer to infertility and developed a fool-proof system to getting pregnant the natural way - no drugs, or surgery necessary.

It took a lot of research to get to where I am today, to know exactly what works and what doesn't. Yes, after desperate trial and error, countless of useless treatments, disappointments, and agony, a simple holistic system opened the door to my new and much brighter life of motherhood.

I was also excited to see that my other infertility related symptoms had diminished. After years of waiting, I was finally free from Infertility! I have become a proud mother of two.

And now I'm finally revealing my secrets in this new 'encyclopedia' of pregnancy called, Pregnancy Miracle.

I will be your own personal coach, take you by the hand, and lead you through the lousy advice, hype and gimmicks... and directly to the sort of inner balance perfection that will end your battle with infertility forever and help you become a proud mother of your healthy children.


Click to order/for more info on this helpful program:
Pregnancy Miracle

We had Eddie late in life. Bruce is 52 and I’m 48 years old.

The funny thing is, I expected people to think we were his grandparents.

Instead, I'll see people my age with a child and assume they're the parents.

I took a long time to get engaged, to get married and to come around to the idea of having children.

For a long time, I thought I didn't want any. I changed my mind.

But by that time, my body had gone to seed, like a stalk of dill, or parsley. Yellowed. Spent.

So at 45 years old, I decided to try in vitro fertilization.

My first attempt was with eggs generously donated by my sister. It didn't work.

So at 46 years old, I tried again – this time with eggs from a 20-year old ballerina.

By veteran journalist, Caren Chesler, mother at 47, author of the blog:
The Dancing Egg — An IVF Story for the Over 40 Crowd.

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome In-fertility
-- At Wu's Healing Center in San Francisco, miracles are happening.

Women and their partners come to the clinic -- often from across the country -- to fulfill a passionately held yet fragile dream: to conceive and deliver the healthy baby that mainstream doctors have told them they cannot have.

Using traditional Chinese medical techniques, sometimes integrated with Western fertility treatments, Dr. Angela Wu is helping these couples experience the miracle of birth.

At a time when one in five U.S. couples is struggling with fertility problems, this practical and uplifting volume, filled with the inspirational stories of Dr. Wu's grateful patients, will be a godsend.

Paperback: 256 pages
Click to order/for more info: Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome In-fertility

Start reading Fertility Wisdom on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

This six-month-old bundle of joy is the most wonderful gift Pamela Butler could have ever given her daughter.

His name is Josef and, while 57-year-old Pamela has entered the record books by giving birth to the blue-eyed boy, he will always know her as Gran.

She carried him in her own womb for her daughter and son-in-law Nichola and Mathew Pagett after her daughter discovered she was unable to carry a baby.

And this overwhelming gesture of love makes her the oldest known surrogate mum in Britain today.

Pamela, from Blackwood, said: I wanted to help Nichola more than anything – it was the greatest gift I could give her.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on WalesOnline.co.uk

Read more: Welsh gran becomes oldest surrogate in UK for her daughter
Originally posted on February 27, 2011.

Photo credit: WalesOnline.co.uk -- All rights reserved

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir
by Alice Eve Cohen
--A personal and medical odyssey beyond anything most women would believe possible

At age forty-four, Alice Eve Cohen was happy for the first time in years.

After a difficult divorce, she was engaged to an inspiring man, joyfully raising her adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Alice tells her fiancé that she's never been happier. And then the stomach pains begin.

In her unflinchingly honest and ruefully witty voice, Alice nimbly carries us through her metamorphosis from a woman who has come to terms with infertility to one who struggles to love a heartbeat found in her womb - six months into a high-risk pregnancy.

What I Thought I Knew is a page-turner filled with vivid characters, humor, and many surprises and twists of fate.

With the suspense of a thriller and the intimacy of a diary, Cohen describes her unexpected journey through doubt, a broken medical system, and the hotly contested terrain of motherhood and family in today's society.

Timely and compelling, What I Thought I Knew will capture readers of memoirs such as Eat, Pray, Love; The Glass Castle; and A Three Dog Life.

Paperback: 208 pages
Click to order/for more info: What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir

Start reading What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Photo Credit: Programmes.STV.tv -- All Rights Reserved

Juliet Le Page became Scotland's oldest mother when she gave birth at 50 years old.

Having settled down with her husband Richard, who is ten years her junior, Juliet has always been determined to have children.

I was quite a determined person, I'd met my husband and thought 'I really want to have a family with this man', Juliet said.

I was pretty sure I wasn't able to conceive naturally, so it had to be some form of assisted conception.

The proportion of women in the UK having children in their forties is the highest it has been in decades.

Fertility rates for women aged 30 and over has gradually increased since 1980, with more women having children between 30 and 34 than those aged 25-29 since 2002.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on Scotsman.com
Read more: Joy of Scotland's oldest mother, aged 50
Originally posted on November 27, 2008

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Right Time Baby: The Complete Guide to Later Motherhood and Pregnancy
by Claudia Spahr

-- There couldn't be a better time for motherhood than after you've explored some of your own dreams and ambitions.

Studies show later mothers to be more secure emotionally and financially than younger mothers and nearly a quarter of all women in the UK are now having babies after 35.

Packed full of useful tips from top medical experts, scientists and world authorities, including Dr. Michel Odent and Dr. Marilyn Glenville, this book is a complete guide for the woman who's lived a life before giving birth.

It covers: preparing for pregnancy and motherhood; how to improve egg quality and prolong fertility so you can get pregnant naturally; exercises, relaxation techniques, mind-body connection for conception; how to increase your chances of success at IVF; making the most of your pregnancy, month by month; ways to avoid pregnancy loss; pregnancy yoga and natural remedies for common pregnancy ailments; how to have the best birth possible; from me to mum - adjusting to lack of sleep, relationship changes and that other job; parenting secrets and concepts from around the globe to inspire new mothers; and, the latest research in neuroscience, nutrition and psychology.

Get ready to embrace the biggest, most exciting transition of your life!

Paperback: 320 pages
Click to order/for more info: Right Time Baby

Start reading Right Time Baby on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

A 72-year-old woman who has two children and five grandchildren has given birth to twins, making her the world's oldest mother.

Omkari Panwar delivered twins, a boy and a girl, by Caesarean section last week.

I am very happy, Charam Singh, 75, the father of the twins, told ABC News through an interpreter.

Singh was reluctant to speak because he has received negative publicity for his wife's having children at such an advanced age.

Even many people of his village in India's state of Uttar Pradesh haven't supported the decision. Still, he and his wife are happy.

The desire for a male child has always been there, but God did not bless us with a male child, he said of the son who is a product of in-vitro fertilization.

Now, we are very grateful to God, who has answered our prayers.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on ABCnews.go.com
Read more: World's Oldest Mom
Originally posted on July 4, 2008.

Photo credit: ABCnews.go.com
All rights reserved

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Pregnancy Miracle
by Lisa Olsen

-- A 279-page, instantly downloadable e-book presenting a 5-step, sure-fire, 100% guaranteed, clinically proven holistic and ancient Chinese system for permanently reversing your infertility and your partner's infertility disorders and getting pregnant quickly, naturally and safely within 2-4 months without drugs, dangerous surgeries, side effects, or expensive infertility treatments.

It's probably the most powerful infertility reversal system ever developed, and currently the best-selling e-book of its kind on the entire Web!

Here's what the author Lisa Olson had to say about her incredible program:
After 14 years of trial, error, and experimentation, I finally discovered the answer to infertility and developed a fool-proof system to getting pregnant the natural way - no drugs, or surgery necessary.

It took a lot of research to get to where I am today, to know exactly what works and what doesn't. Yes, after desperate trial and error, countless of useless treatments, disappointments, and agony, a simple holistic system opened the door to my new and much brighter life of motherhood.

I was also excited to see that my other infertility related symptoms had diminished. After years of waiting, I was finally free from Infertility! I have become a proud mother of two.

And now I'm finally revealing my secrets in this new 'encyclopedia' of pregnancy called, Pregnancy Miracle.

I will be your own personal coach, take you by the hand, and lead you through the lousy advice, hype and gimmicks... and directly to the sort of inner balance perfection that will end your battle with infertility forever and help you become a proud mother of your healthy children.


Click to order/for more info on this helpful program:
Pregnancy Miracle

Photo credit: Dailymail.co.uk - All rights reserved

July 16, 1969 - Suddenly I'm young again, grandmother Mrs. Joanna Du Plessis said today.

Mrs. Du Plessis, 58 years old, gave birth to a 5 lb. baby girl on Tuesday.

She said she had to borrow dolls clothes from one of her ten grandchildren to dress the baby because she did not know until three hours before the birth she was pregnant.

Mrs. Du Plessis became the oldest woman on record to have a child.

The Guinness Book of Records said the oldest woman previously to give birth was American Mrs. Roth Kitler who had a daughter in 1956 at the age of 57.

Mrs. Du Plessis told reporters her husband had wept for joy when he saw the baby, called Magda.

It was his first child, she said.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on The Age
Read more: Oldest Mother Did Not Know
Originally posted on July 17, 1969.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The New Fertility Diet Guide: Delicious Food Secrets To Help You Get Pregnant Faster At Any Age
by Niels H. Lauersen and Colette Bouchez

-- The best selling authors of Getting Pregnant: What You Need To Know Now share new secrets to using specific foods and food combinations to greatly enhance your chance of getting pregnant fast and easy.

Tested on hundreds of couples, this unique new natural way to increase fertility can work regardless of your age or reproductive status.

Studies show it can even increase your IVF success rate!

Delicious, nutritious and easy to follow, this secret food plan works for both women and men to not only help increase fertility but also improve overall health and encourage conception of a healthier baby!

Paperback: 184 pages
Click to order/for more info: The New Fertility Diet Guide

Start reading The New Fertility Diet Guide on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Ann Conlon-Smith, a mother in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA who lost a lot of blood after her cesarean delivery of twins at the age of 47, found herself with a low milk supply that lagged for three months.

It was an awful time and I was terrified - I didn't know if I was 'too old to breastfeed' or just what had happened. I used lots of milk bank milk, pumped continuously, and put the babies to breast all day and all night.

Many factors can affect milk supply, including conditions such as hypertension, anemia, and severe postpartum bleeding.

Nonetheless, with hard work, good guidance and support, and lots of patience, an older mother will, in most cases, be able to build up her milk supply.

Determined for her twins to receive no less than their singleton siblings did, Ann persevered and her milk supply did improve.

While she and her family were grieving deeply and endlessly the drowning death of her two-year-old son, Gregory, Ann Conlon-Smith recalls how desperately she wanted one more child.

I had no idea that suddenly I would no longer be able to become pregnant, when four times previously, I got pregnancy exactly when I wanted to, and even when I did not intend to!

I wish my doctor had told me that because of my advanced age (46) I might need to work with a reproductive endocrinologist or fertility clinic. We finally did just that and conceived our precious twins.

Reflecting on the eventual weaning of the last children she intends to have, Ann states, I wonder what it will be like to miss seeing their eyelids flutter and close in rest and to feel that deep relaxation and rest that I never feel in any other way. I think I will always miss it.

It will remain the most cherished memory of my young children's lives and their connection to me.

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
The Fertility Code
by Dermot O'Connor
-- The Fertility Code program delivers a powerful and practical step-by-step approach for those who wish to give themselves the best chance of starting a family.

As many as 500,000 couples in the UK and Ireland actively seek help with fertility, such as IVF treatment each year. While some are legitimate candidates, many have been proven to just need proper lifestyle and fertility advice and assistance in order to conceive.

The Fertility Code is designed for these people, and for those who need more serious intervention, to optimize their fertility. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to preventing a couple from having a baby.

This is why it is important that a fertility plan should address as many of these potential issues as possible. Through many years' experience of helping thousands of couples to become parents, Dermot O'Connor knows that such a plan must be easy to understand, easy to implement and genuinely effective.

The Fertility Code combines the best of both Eastern and Western medicine to provide a comprehensive guide to conceiving successfully and carrying a baby to full term.
It details the optimum plan to enhance fertility, and delivers a proven strategy, incorporating the key elements consistently utilized by the couples Dermot has helped:

• Fertility Awareness Strategies
• The psychology of fertility
• Optimum nutrition for conception and pregnancy
• The importance of detoxification

Paperback: 224 pages
Click to order/for more info: The Fertility Code

Start reading The Fertility Code on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Photo Credit: CLARA MOLDEN | Telegraph.co.uk - All rights reserved

When Linda de Lange gave birth to her fourth son, one month away from her 48th birthday, the unplanned pregnancy divided her family and friends.

From some of my female friends, there was immediate hysterical laughter – they would say it was their worst nightmare. Others were very jealous.

At that stage in life, the choices are being taken away from you. I became aware that quite a few women I knew had a secret yen for another child, she says.

But that was nothing compared with the response from her doctor.

My GP said: 'I've never met anyone as old as you who have given birth.' That was really not helpful, says Mrs de Lange, laughing now, eight years after Benjamin was born.

There was one more tricky audience to face.

She and her husband, Matthew, had to tell their three sons – then aged between 15 and 20 – who were, she says, pretty disgusted by the thought of what their parents had been up to.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on Telegraph.co.uk
Read more: Motherhood is easier if you're older
Originally posted in March 4, 2012.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Pregnancy Miracle
by Lisa Olsen

-- A 279-page, instantly downloadable e-book presenting a 5-step, sure-fire, 100% guaranteed, clinically proven holistic and ancient Chinese system for permanently reversing your infertility and your partner's infertility disorders and getting pregnant quickly, naturally and safely within 2-4 months without drugs, dangerous surgeries, side effects, or expensive infertility treatments.

It's probably the most powerful infertility reversal system ever developed, and currently the best-selling e-book of its kind on the entire Web!

Here's what the author Lisa Olson had to say about her incredible program:
After 14 years of trial, error, and experimentation, I finally discovered the answer to infertility and developed a fool-proof system to getting pregnant the natural way - no drugs, or surgery necessary.

It took a lot of research to get to where I am today, to know exactly what works and what doesn't. Yes, after desperate trial and error, countless of useless treatments, disappointments, and agony, a simple holistic system opened the door to my new and much brighter life of motherhood.

I was also excited to see that my other infertility related symptoms had diminished. After years of waiting, I was finally free from Infertility! I have become a proud mother of two.

And now I'm finally revealing my secrets in this new 'encyclopedia' of pregnancy called, Pregnancy Miracle.

I will be your own personal coach, take you by the hand, and lead you through the lousy advice, hype and gimmicks... and directly to the sort of inner balance perfection that will end your battle with infertility forever and help you become a proud mother of your healthy children.


Click to order/for more info on this helpful program:
Pregnancy Miracle

A 64-year-old Turkish woman has given birth to a baby boy in Istanbul, becoming the second oldest mother in the world, a hospital spokesman said on Wednesday.

After 35 years of trying, Memnune Tiryaki became pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF) -- by egg transfer from a donor -- in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and delivered her baby by Cesarean section on Monday in the private German Hospital here.

She had to get the operation performed in the KKTC since egg transplants are forbidden in Turkey.

It's a great success... She is the second oldest woman in the world to have given birth, hospital spokesman Bulent Biricik told Agence France-Presse, adding a Romanian had given birth at the age of 67 in 2005.

Both the mother and the boy are fine, he said, adding they were expected to be discharged from hospital later on Wednesday.

The baby was 48 centimeters long and weighed 2.7 kilograms.

No one should discuss my age and make calculations of how long I will live, Tiryaki told Sabah newspaper.

I just wanted to have a child, and no one else can know how happy I am.

The 62-year-old father was equally joyous. Science made it possible and God helped us, Ömer Tiryaki said.

The only thing I care about from now on is the happiness of my child.

We always believed we would succeed, he told Hurriyet newspaper.

Since we are both retired, we will raise the baby together.

The Turkish Cypriot doctor who performed the IVF treatment said he made the decision after much hesitation over Tiryaki's age.

I was doubtful, but they convinced me, Halil Ibrahim Tekin told Sabah.

They wanted this baby so much. They were ready to do anything.

He explained only 25 percent of women aged over 40 stands a chance of becoming pregnant through IVF treatment, but even the uterus of a 90-year-old woman is medically fit for the operation.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on DNAindia.com
Read more: Turkish woman gives birth at age 64
Originally posted on October 11, 2006.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Pregnancy After 40: 40 Things No One Told You About Being Pregnant Over 40 (Pregnancy Plan Series)
by Jill Conrad, Pregnancy Support Institute

-- So you're over 40 and you've decided to get pregnant. You are not alone.

A growing number of women are waiting to have a baby until they are over 40.
This book will reveal:

♥ How you can have a healthy baby in your forties (in spite of all the warnings).
♥ What the biggest risks are and what you can do about them (it may not be as bad as you think)
♥ The 3 most important things you can do to have a healthy baby after 40 (you might already be doing some of them)
♥ Why older mothers often make better parents (the surprising reason)
♥ The one thing you should do every night to keep you fertile and able to conceive naturally (it takes 5 minutes)
…and Much More!

So get started and discover how to have the safest pregnancy and the healthiest baby when you are over 40 and pregnant.

Start reading Pregnancy After 40 on your Kindle in under a minute!

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

November 22, 1999 - Any baby is wonderful, and I speak as one who had her fourth baby when she was 47 years old.

(Not that I'm trying to compete here in the elderly mother stakes, at which I plainly win, just establishing my credentials to speak on the subject).

Having a baby late is no problem.

Apart from anything else the system gets flooded with natural oestrogen, which stands you in good stead for at least another 10 years.

If nature says you can, and gets you pregnant, then you can.

The empty cradle longing gets finally laid to rest: that strange restless feeling that you're only whole if you have a baby in your arms.

It's nothing to do with having more children that's rational, this is instinctive and truly powerful.

You may have more trouble than you expect from other women, who somehow feel that it isn't right, that there are only so many babies to go round, and you have nabbed another one out of turn.

They can get envious and peculiar.

On first suspecting this untoward event I went to a doctor and said other women tell me I shouldn't go through with this, my eggs are too old, as if I were some aging hen, to which he briskly replied.

 My mother was 47 when I was born, and there isn't anything wrong with me, which put an end to that discussion.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on Independent.co.uk
Read more: A little advice from another older mother
Originally posted on November 22, 1999.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Fathers of a Certain Age: The Joys and Problems of Middle-Aged Fatherhood
by Martin Carnoy

-- A father and son interview dozens of men in their 40s and 50s to discover why these men have decided to delay parenting or start over, and how they feel about fathering children in late middle age.

The result is a timely assessment of the challenges and rewards older fathers face, as seen through their own eyes and those of their wives and children.

Men are becoming fathers at 40, 50 or more, but there is very little information on what issues they will have to deal with or how to cope with the new life phase.

Lots of anecdotes of from families with either delayed or remarried fatherhood.

It offers glimpses of societal changes as we are all living longer and healthier and as a result, may have children later.

Discusses step-kids, May-December marriages, adoption, fathers-at-home, and more.

Paperback: 192 pages
Click to order/for more info: Fathers of a Certain Age

As I checked out a tall, slim man in his thirties with salt and pepper hair at a Greenwich Village party, a lady astrologist a couple of years older than moi looked my way and said, When we get to this age, we lose interest in men.

I assume she believed I would agree with her reading of the situation, but I, a divorced, almost forty-nine-year old Jewish female from New York City, still have a seventy-year-old aunt who dates.

I also contemplated how we women peak sexually in our forties, but I am one year away from, gulp, fifty.

And the thing is, I want to be pregnant again.

I already have an amazing twenty-three-year-old son, but I want a repeat performance.

Yes; even as most women my age throw in the hormonal towel, I find myself looking at guys much the way Samantha would in Sex In The City, sizing up men between 25 and 45 at the supermarket, the mall, the ballgame.

Only I'm not looking for potential lovers, I'm looking for a baby daddy.

Blue eyes or brown, balding or Kennedy-esque — I try to gaze right through their skin to see their very DNA.

My friends think I am off my rocker, I should enjoy the empty nest and not make a syndrome out of it.

They're in the been-there/done-that phase, and those still interested in men go for the immediate gratification relationships and have no desire for long-term proposals.

Not one friend will admit maybe my pregnancy desires might be something she feels, too.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on NYtimes.com
Read more: I'm Almost 50 and I Want to Get Pregnant - Am I The Only One?
Originally posted on September 30th, 2010.

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition 4th Edition
by Marilyn M. Shannon

-- How your diet affects your menstrual cycles and fertility...

Self-help strategies for PMS, infertility, painful periods, pre-menopause, repeated pregnancy loss, irregular cycles, heavy bleeding, pregnancy, and male infertility.

The premise which prompted Marilyn Shannon to write the first edition of Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition in 1990 has more scientific backing than ever before: There are many cycle irregularities which can either be eliminated or alleviated simply through better nutrition or body balance.

In this completely updated and expanded edition, Shannon identifies the specific nutrition and targeted supplementation which can be used as self-care to overcome cycle problems or improve fertility.

Paperback: 204 pages
Click to order/for more info: Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition

Picture caption: Mary Shearing gave birth to twin daughters in November 1992 at the age of 53. Amy and Kelly, now 20 years old, prove that fertility treatment allowing postmenopausal women to have babies is not a new phenomenon.

November 12, 1992 - A 53-year-old grandmother who became pregnant through test-tube fertilization has given birth to twin girls.

The new mother, Mary Shearing, is apparently the oldest woman ever to have given birth to a test-tube baby in the United States.

Dennis Gaschen, a spokesman at Martin Luther Hospital, where the twins were delivered on Tuesday, said the oldest post-menopausal woman in the nation to have delivered a test-tube baby previously was 52.

The Guinness Book of Records lists the oldest mother as a woman nearly 57 1/2 years old who gave birth in California in 1956.

Mrs. Shearing's babies, born 12 weeks prematurely and both weighing less than three pounds, were listed as being in guarded condition today. One was delivered vaginally, the other by Caesarean section.

Mrs. Shearing, who has three children and two grandchildren from a previous marriage, was going through menopause when she was implanted on May 15 with embryos obtained by using donated eggs and sperm from her 32-year-old husband, Don. Hormones were used in the first trimester to sustain the pregnancy.

This Pregnancy Over 40 story was found on NYtimes.com
Read more: California Woman, 53, Gives Birth to Twins,
Originally published November 12, 1992

Photo credit: bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
All rights reserved

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TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation
by Ellen Sarasohn, Evelina Weidman Sterling

-- A comprehensive book for people considering parenthood through donated ova, and those supporting them.

It takes readers through the decision-making process, focusing on questions they are likely to be asking themselves, including: Are we candidates for egg donation? Will it work?

How much does it cost? How do we find a donor?

How do we talk about our decision with others? How will we tell our children? Ethical questions related to egg donation are also examined:

Can a donor truly have informed consent?
Is it ethically correct for donors to receive payment, and, if so, is the payment for 'time and effort' or for their eggs?

Hardcover: 384 pages
Click to order/for more info: Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation


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