47 is the oldest I have known a woman have a baby through natural conception...This was 2009. She and her 43 y.o. DH already had a son. So this was their second child. (She had her first son at 30, then got pregnant at 46, and had another son. Didn't know she was pregnant until she was 6 months in.) This is the ONLY woman I know who had a baby by natural conception as old as 47 though.
Apart from her, I have known (in my life) around half a dozen women have a baby at a similar age - 45 to 46 years old, (by natural conception,) and every last one (including the first woman) had a problem with the pregnancy, and the birth, and the child had some kind of health issues/problems. Some they didn't discover til the child was a bit older. But they all had some kind of health issue. (Not saying every child born to a 45-47 y.o. mother via natural conception will have some kind of health issues, but they are far more likely to than if the mother had been early 40s or less...)
As for the people saying their gran/great aunt etc had a baby at 51/52-or older. Highly unlikely. Chances are high that she took on a child of one of her daughters, or nieces...Or even a child of one of her sons... Happened quite a lot pre mid 1970s. (Still happens now occasionally...) The chance of conceiving naturally even in your early 50s is vanishingly small. Mid 50s, nigh on impossible.
@Rubyupbeat · Today 13:17
Twin boys, mum was 55 and Dad was 80, their 3 other children had grown up and left home and the twins were a complete shock, their youngest being 22.
I met them at the clinic I worked at.
100% certainty this was IVF.
@YouLookinSusBro · Today 20:05
56! A woman at work. Was a surprise natural conception too.
No it wasn't. No woman would ever conceive naturally at 56. It was either IVF, or this woman took on a grandchild and attempted to pass it off as her own.
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