Ranjit Hayer, a Canadian woman originally from India, tried for decades to get pregnant but was unable to because of fertility problems. In addition to her infertility, she was also the victim of a scam when she and her husband paid thousands to a bogus doctor who then absconded with their money. It took them years to raise more money to try again.
She got pregnant after several IVF attempts but each time, it ended in miscarriage.
Finally, she was successful in maintaining her pregnancy and on the 3rd February 2009, she gave birth to twin boys, seven weeks prematurely, by caesarean section at Foothill's Hospital in Calgary.
Canada's Oldest Mother
Ranjit becomes Canada's oldest mother. Due to her age, she is recovering from her caesarean in intensive care. Her sons are in the neo-natal intensive care unit because of their prematurity. One of the babies is on a ventilator, and the other is breathing on his own with the help of a CPAP machine (continuous positive airway pressure). This blows a stream of high pressure air into the baby's nasal cavity to help him get enough oxygen.
Ranjit has said her family is supportive and will help her with any difficulties she may encounter, and she is delighted to finally be a mother.
Post-Menopausal IVF Has Happened in the USA Too
In 2007, a 60 year old New Jersey woman made headlines, when she gave birth, also to twin boys, at Hackensack University Medical Center. Her twins were term and both weighed 4lbs, 11ozs. Her case was even more controversial as she had previously not had any fertility problems and already had three children, two grown up children, aged 33 and 29, and a 6 and a half year old boy.
Exactly a year before, 59 year old Lauren Cohen gave birth to twins in Columbia, a boy and a girl that she named Gregory and Giselle.
Single Mother Gives Birth To 14 Babies
The use of IVF in elderly mothers isn't the only issue of contention. Recently Nadya Soleman, a 33 year old divorced mother of six, gave birth to octuplets after having fertility treatment. She is a full time caretaker of her children, with no partner to support her and no paid employment.
"All I ever wanted was children", she said, "I wanted to be a mom. That's all I wanted in my life."
Members of the public and ethics committees raised angry questions about how she would provide for her family and why a doctor would knowingly transfer six embryos to her womb, when he knew she already had six children at home.
The six embryos implanted successfully and two of them split, making eight babies in total.
She gave birth by caesarean to six boys and two girls and all of them are doing well, making them one of the first sets of octuplets to actually survive.
The Medical Board of California is now investigating the doctor who performed the IVF to see if there were any violations in his standard of care. They are concerned that so many embryos were implanted when she already had a large family.
Other countries like the UK have a law in place which prevents more than two embryos being implanted at any one time, to avoid controversies like this one, and to minimize the risks of pregnancy complications and prematurity, which are associated with multiple births.
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