A 62-year-old American woman who is a grandmother and great grandmother several times over has given birth to her 12th child, a son, in northern California.
Janise Wulf gave birth to the boy, Adam Charles, after conceiving through in vitro fertilisation. He arrived three weeks early weighing 6lbs 9oz, said a spokesperson for Mercy Medical Centre in Redding.
Wulf, who has been blind since birth, was a grandmother to 20, and a great grandmother to three, when she delivered by caesarean section on Friday. Her 10 surviving children, the products of two earlier marriages, are aged between 24 and 40.
She told reporters she wanted a family with her third husband, Scott Wulf (48) who had been married before but did not have children.
The couple have a three-year-old son, who was also conceived through IVF, and they did not want him to grow up an only child. Wulf consulted doctors and began a year of fertility treatment to conceive Adam.
”I believe personally that age is just a number,” Wulf told NBC television. ”When I became pregnant we were absolutely thrilled. And I think that. A friend of mine expressed it well. He said: ‘If you can feel you can do it, go for it’.”
Wulf said she believed she would be a better parent than she was as a younger woman.
”I think I’m a much better parent now than when I was younger. I’m not working. I’m not under stress. I’m ready to enjoy them.”
But she told reporters that Adam would be her last baby.
Wulf was released from hospital on Tuesday; her son will remain there for monitoring because he has underdeveloped lungs.
She is believed to be the fourth oldest woman known to have given birth. The oldest, Romanian Adriana Iliescu, was 66 when she gave birth last year. – Guardian Unlimited Â