Home My Great Grandmother had 12 children, 3 born after her 40th birthday.

My Great Grandmother had 12 children, 3 born after her 40th birthday.

Catherine McDiarmid-Watt | Sunday, October 08, 2006 | 0 comments

I've done a bunch of genealogy work on all sides of my family and my husband's family and found that many of our relatives in the 1800's lived on farms and had huge families. Without birth control to limit the numbers or fertility assistance to increase the numbers, they managed to have children about every two years from about age 18 to age 48! My own Great Grandmother had 12 children, three of whom were born after her 40th birthday.

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From looking through old census records (over 100 years old) I would say at 43/44 it was still reasonably common for women to be having children, with the occasional one even older.

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I think that I can top everyone here and give us all a lot of hope. My grandmother's mom had a daughter when she was in her 50’s. I think she was 52. This was in the early 1900's. Good luck to all, Margaret.

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I have a friend who was 44 (naturally, although she was on clomid) when she had her first baby.

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A friend of mine is a midwife and a couple of years ago, she delivered a naturally conceived set of twins to a 50 year old woman.

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2,822 Stories of Pregnancy & Birth over 44 years old
http://www.tonguewag.com/journals/catherine6067/

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About Catherine: I am mom to three grown sons, two grandchildren and two rescue dogs. After years of raising my boys as a single mom, I remarried a wonderful man who had never had a child of his own. Unexpectedly, I found myself pregnant at 49!
Sadly we lost our precious baby at 8 weeks, and decided to try again. Five more losses, turned down for donor egg, foster care and adoption due to my age and losses - we have accepted there will be no more babies in our house.

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