A friend of mine had a baby at 47 with her own egg

A friend of mine did at 47 - very rare I know - with her own egg. She did a lot of attempts over several years. It was very tough. Initially her problem was blocked fallopian tubes (she'd had a baby at 22 but had had an operation later that blocked the tubes), so her problem wasn't entirely hormonal. That said she had one viable embryo on most attempts.

When I told my RE he was astonished. I suppose she has defied the stats.

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Although there was no medical reason they wouldn't fall pregnant, other than age, they began IVF. After two rounds of IVF, Jane became pregnant and gave birth to Alexander when she was 42.

After breastfeeding for a year, the couple began IVF again and, after four attempts, Jane, then 45, gave birth to twins Sophie and Thomas. "We were always very hopeful. We didn't look at statistics," she said.

Although they considered stopping IVF, they kept trying. "I could see how you could get addicted, because you just think one more go, one more go. It's like the pokies when you put in one more dollar thinking you're going to win."

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Although I personally have only heard of one woman who I know for sure became pregnant "the old fashioned way" after 45 with her FIRST child.

But I know of quite a few women who'd had children previously who then went on to have another in their mid to late 40's (frequently accidentally!)

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Quite true about statistics being misleading about women over 40s chances of pregnancy.. I'm doing a lot of genealogy at the moment (researching my family tree)...Looking through the English census reports of the 1800's is fascinating; the number of my relations who were having children into their late 40's and even early 50's is surprising...

I suppose a lot of it is to do with lack of contraception and spending most of their lives pregnant anyway (and so saving more of those precious egg reserves)...I know infant mortality was incredibly high too and life style was healthier (lots of fresh air and exercise for my agricultural ancestors, no additives, all organic) but it wasn't unusual for them to still have school children at home at an age when we would usually expect to be retiring ...

It's not that nature didn’t intend us to have children over the age of 40... Its more that she didn’t expect us to delay having them so long

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My mom was 47 when she had had me.

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Category: 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53