60-Year-Old Woman Becomes Proud Mother of Twin Boys

On Tuesday May 22, 2007, Frieda Birnbaum became the oldest woman to give birth to twins in the United States, according to Fox News. The 60-year-old woman gave birth to two healthy twin boys at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. The delivery was performed via caesarian section. Both babies weighed around 4lbs, and neither boy has been officially named as of yet.

Frieda is already the proud mother of three other children including a 6-year-old son, a 29-year-old daughter, and a 33-year-old son. She is a psychologist and has been married to her husband for 38 years. The couple admits that they haven't pinned down particular names for the boys yet, but that they are leaning towards Jake and Jared.

The doctor who performed the delivery and aided Frieda throughout her pregnancy, Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, has proclaimed mother and both the boys to be very healthy and in good physical condition.

These twins were no accident; Frieda had made the decision a year previous to giving birth to the boys that she wanted more children. Particularly she wanted children around the age of her youngest child Ari, who is six years old. Frieda did participate in in-vitro fertilization for both the twins and her youngest child and hopes that more women of an older age will feel comfortable being pregnant and raising children. The doctors did warn Frieda that a pregnancy at her age would be risky, but fortunately for the family, all are healthy at this time.

Although there are no specific age limitations on women engaging in in-vitro fertilization, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology suggests that women be under the age of 50 (if using a donor egg) or under the age of 44 (if using their own egg) before undergoing such treatments.

Although Frieda now holds the record for being the oldest woman to give birth to twins in the U.S., it is actually Maria del Carmen Bousarda Lara who holds the record for being the oldest woman in the world to give birth to twins. Maria gave birth to twins just a week before her 67^th birthday in her native Spain.

Frieda hopes to give encouragement to women of all ages who decide to have children, but especially to older women, through the book she will be writing chronicling her pregnancy and delivery.

Fox News, "60-Year-Old Woman Delivers Twin Boys." FoxNews.Com. URL: (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274726,00.html)