A 56-year-old single mother gave birth on Tuesday to fraternal twins just three days before her 57th birthday.
New York 1 broadcaster reported that the twins — Francesca, and her brother Gian — were delivered in a Caesarean procedure.
With their delivery, the mother, Aleta St James, a therapist, broke a national record as the oldest mother of twins in the United States. The global record for late mother-of-twins-hood is held by a British woman who was 58 when she gave birth two years ago.
St James had postponed pregnancy while she was concentrating on her career and travelling. But she wanted children, and after two years of fertility treatment and using sperm from a former partner, the ”miracle” occurred.
St James said her experience shows one is never too old to have children, but some physicians were quoted as saying they had second thoughts about helping a woman in her mid-50s with fertility treatments.
St James is the sister of Curtis Sliwa, who founded the self help community group Guardian Angels 25 years ago.
The oldest mother in the world gave birth at age 65 last year to a single son in India, the New York Daily News reported. – Sapa-DPA