An American who dared to give birth to twins with the help of ɪɴ ᴠɪᴛʀᴏ ꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟɪᴢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ a few months before her 60th birthday. Thus, for a while, she became the oldest mother of twins in the world.
At that time, the world’s oldest woman in labor was considered 66-year-old Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in January 2005 to a daughter named Eliza Maria (Eliza Maria). Almost two years later, her record was broken by the Spaniard Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, who in December 2006, a few days before her 67th birthday, gave birth to two boys. However, this record was broken by two 70-year-old Indian women. In June and November 2008, the oldest ‘young mothers’ in the world were Omkari Panwar and Rajo Devi Lohan, who, curiously, gave birth using the sᴘᴇʀᴍ of their own husbands. The husbands were older than the wives.
Lauren Cohen of Paramus, New Jersey, gave birth to her twins on May 22, 2006 at the age of 59, 9 months and 11 days, at New York’s York-Presbyterian Hospital. She did not set out to set any records or become the oldest American woman to give birth. She just wanted to please her husband, who is 20 years younger than her and who dreams of children, although she did not express this desire out loud.
According to Lauren herself, she does not feel that she has done something outstanding. Firstly, she does not feel like an old woman, she is completely healthy, with the exception of ᴀʀᴛʜʀɪᴛɪs, and secondly, there are enough mothers in the world of a more respectable age. The biological father of the children was her husband, 40-year-old Frank Garcia, but Lauren received an ᴇɢɢ from an anonymous donor.
Lauren was born on August 11, 1946. She is a lawyer, works from a home office, and already has children. At the time of the birth of the twins, baby Giselle and her brother Gregory, Lauren had a 27-year-old daughter Renee from her first marriage and a daughter Rachel, one and a half years old, born in the same way as her younger siblings, from her marriage to Frank. Rachel was born in December 2004.
Faced with the fact that they had to decide how to deal with the ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏs left from Rachel’s birth – give them away or ᴅᴇsᴛʀᴏʏ them – Lauren decided to try to get pregnant again, and she succeeded. As is often the case with I.V.F procedures, more than one ꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟɪᴢᴇᴅ ᴇɢɢ took root, as a result of which twins appeared in the family.
Speaking about the reasons that pushed her to take this difficult step for a woman of her age, Lauren said that she was led by love for her husband. She thought it was unfair to deprive Frank of the chance to have more children just because he married a woman twenty years older than himself. He never asked her to give him another baby, but Lauren knew that it would make her husband a very happy man.
However, she does not encourage older women to follow her example and break the boundaries set by nature. In each case, such a situation should be viewed with great ᴄᴀᴜᴛɪᴏɴ, Cohen insists. To be completely honest, she doesn’t think it’s really right to have babies when you’re about to turn sixty.
She only dared to start a new pregnancy because she has Frank, a young and healthy man who is also a very gentle and caring father. Moreover, such a decision entails ᴅᴀɴɢᴇʀᴏᴜs ᴄᴏɴsᴇǫᴜᴇɴᴄᴇs for the health and lives of the mother and child. So, Lauren ʟᴏsᴛ an incredible amount of ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ on the ᴅᴇʟɪᴠᴇʀʏ table, and the doctors had to fight for the lives of all three. The children were supposed to be born by ᴄᴀᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ, but two days before the scheduled date of the ᴏᴘᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, an ᴇᴍᴇʀɢᴇɴᴄʏ ʜʏsᴛᴇʀᴇᴄᴛᴏᴍʏ, or removal of the ᴜᴛᴇʀᴜs, had to be performed since the overgrown ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇɴᴛᴀ broke through the wall of the ᴜᴛᴇʀᴜs. Fortunately, Lauren went to the hospital back in March – the pregnancy was not going too smoothly – and the doctors managed to do everything.