Oldest Mom Downplays Lie About Age
Jan. 29, 2007 — -- At 67 years old, Carmela Bousada, who gave birth to twins Dec. 29, is almost certainly the oldest new mother in the world.
But the Spanish woman told a British newspaper that she lied to a fertility clinic about her age, saying she was 55 in order to get in vitro fertilization treatment.
The retired department store employee says she was so desperate to give birth she sold her house to pay for $60,000 worth of fertility treatments at a clinic in Los Angeles.
"Maybe things shouldn't have been done in the way they were done," Bousada said in an interview, "but that was the only way to achieve the thing I have always dreamed of and I did it."
During in vitro fertilization last year, Bousada was implanted with donor sperm and a donor egg. The fact that she is the oldest new mother on record does not seem to faze her.
"It's not such a big deal, because my body responded so well to this," she said.
That's not how her fertility doctor in California sees it.
Dr. V. Sahakian told "Good Morning America" that he had been provided with false information and would never have knowingly treated a single woman older than 55.
"I am dismayed that someone would go to such extremes and take advantage of my expertise to achieve their personal goals," Sahakian said.
Recent studies show that women in their 50s and 60s can safely carry babies to term. A woman's uterus has a slower biological clock than her ovaries, but pregnancy can put a dangerous strain on her aging heart, lungs and kidneys.
"That doesn't mean we should be encouraging such a practice because one or two women had a good outcome," said Dr. Christos Coutifaris, a fertility specialist from the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to Bousada, the oldest woman to give birth was Romanian citizen Adriana Iliescu, at the age of 66. Beyond concerns about the mother's health, there is the question of an elderly parent raising children.
Bousada will be 85 years old when her twin boys graduate from high school.
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