Having Twins At Age 59by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger 05 Jul 2006 05:00 PM I'm sure by now you are familiar with the studies that have found more and more women are waiting until later in life to have children. Their reasons vary from wanting to concentrate on career before getting married and pregnant to just wanting to spend more "alone time" with a spouse before starting a family. In fact, page through a celebrity magazine these days and you are more likely to read about an actress in her 40s giving birth to a baby than one in her 20s. For example, TV actress Mariska Hargitay just gave birth to her first child at age 42. At 38-years-old, Oscar-winning actress, Mira Sorvino recently gave birth to baby number two. Academy Award nominee, Elisabeth Shue was 42 when she added her latest bundle of joy to the family. Wife of magician Penn Jillette, Emily Jillette, had her second child at age 40. And at 41-years-old, singer Diana Krall recently found out she's expecting a baby in December. Though, none of these celebrities got as much attention as the 59-year-old New Jersey woman who recently tied a world's record by giving birth to twins. Lauren Cohen is just a few weeks away of her 60th birthday, but she will likely be too busy to celebrate the milestone given that she is now juggling newborn twins (a boy and a girl) and a daughter she gave birth to 18 months ago. Newspaper reports say, contrary to popular belief, Cohen denies being an advocate of mid-life pregnancies. "I don't think it's right to have a baby when you're close to 60 unless you're in an unusual situation like mine where you have a younger spouse who you can feel fully confident will be an involved parent." Cohen's husband, Frank Garcia, from Peru, is about 20 years younger than his wife. For his part, Garcia maintains that he is elated with the twins' arrival and confesses that it has always been one of his dreams to have twins. (The twins were conceived through in vitro fertilization.) Cohen, who also has a 27-year-old daughter, from an earlier marriage said the other reason she wanted to get pregnant again was that she was determined for her 18-month-old daughter to have a sibling. As I write this I can't help but think of my own mother who is younger than Cohen. I think about how she came to stay with us after I gave birth to my daughter. Whoa! Even after giving birth to four children of her own, she was the first to admit that she had forgotten how much work it is to tend to an infant. And now that my daughter is two, my mother is twice as tired after watching her. Can you imagine having twins at age 59? Related Article: Celebrity Baby Boom--Do You Sense A Trend Here? Learn more about Michele Cheplic  Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Relevantpopular culture tags User Comments  QueenAngie Central Illinois, USA (60086) 06 Jul 2006 06:50 PMI have no desire to be pregnant and age 59. Pregnancy at any age is hard on a woman's body. The Mom stated above is 59 with three small babies. Will she live long enough to see her children graduate high school, graduate college, get married, or even meet her grandchildren? I would hope she has provided a legal will and guardians for her children, should something happen to her. I believe that babies are a blessing. At 59, she could be a grandmother or a even stretching it...a great grandmother. Loretta Lynn was a grandmother at age 30. I would not recommend that age either. What are your thoughts on this topic?  Libby Pelham (12876) 07 Jul 2006 07:54 AMThat's just sad. I wonder about living long enough to see Will graduate from high school and college and I was 41 when I had him. It is not like the grandparents can take care of these children if she dies :-(  Julie Gentry (5915) 28 Jan 2007 01:47 PMEven if she lives long enough to raise them, she's cheating her DAUGHTER's children out of a grandmother. princessteva (5) 10 Sep 2008 01:37 AMwho cares how old she is? why do you all think shes going to die in 5 years? thats awful that your putting that on her.. making her feel guilty like that.. how dare you.. so shes old.. i bet shes going to be the best parent since she has so much life experence.. and so big deal the kids don't have a granmother most children dont... who cares.. you should all feel ashamed of youselved and appoligize for being so rude... its awful  Valorie Delp (49340) 10 Sep 2008 03:57 AMRude? Really? As opposed to your politely worded post? You do realize that people die right? And that frankly, your chances of dying at 59 are a little more statistically in your favor than your chances of dying at age 30? The reality is that we are a "I gotta have it now, don't think about the consequences of others" society. This is a perfect example. Was she really thinking of her children? I doubt it. Clearly she wasn't thinking about the fact that most twins are born prematurely. . .and of course she's increased their risk of being born with life threatening diseases and illnesses due to her age. She wasn't thinking about how much love she had to offer a child who needed it--she could've adopted to do that. She was thinking about herself and how she wanted a baby or two--at any cost. I think if I remember correctly, these babies were born healthy but that is luck--not selfless motherly love. I hope her spouse is prepared to do both geriatric care and care for teens at the same time.  Michele Cheplic (37339) 10 Sep 2008 06:10 AMThanks Valorie--I wonder what princessteva thinks of the 59-year-old French mom who just gave birth to triplets last week. She sought fertility treatment in Vietnam after she was denied assistance in her home country. In France, it is illegal for doctors to provide fertility treatment to women who are older than 50 or past the age of being able to procreate naturally. Libby Pelham (12876) 10 Sep 2008 07:35 AMMy guess is that princessteva is young - when you are young, you often think with a certain amount of assurance "Oh, I am sure I will live to be 70 or 80 at least." But, I think once you hit 40, you realize that health issues are a real factor in life as things naturally start to deteriortate. I lost a best friend from high school last year to pneumonia - he was only 45 years old. Valorie Delp (49340) 13 Sep 2008 02:10 PMYes ladies. . .probably so. Michele, many countries in Europe have ethics laws regarding fertility treatments and I highly favor them. ;-) It's one thing to conceive in your older years but an entirely different thing to intentionally implant two or more eggs. Anyhow. . .talk about off topic comments! Bad Valorie! Bad Valorie! Community Tags Age, mother, pregnancy, twins Discuss this article
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