Blimey! Victoria Coren Mitchell has had a second baby at 51

[Sidebeforeself]

Congratulations to her. I caught up with OC last night and thought she looked pregnant but dismissed it when i remembered she’s around my age. Then i saw the announcement today. I’m knackered just thinking about it!

I had older parents, and as they were the youngest of their families my grandparents were dead or already very old. They retired when I was still at school. I therefore had a very stable and privileged childhood. I had three much older brothers, who were like extra parents, I went to private school, I had entire summer holidays abroad. My dad took me to all sorts of interesting places, and I had their entire focus.

The downside was they checked out emotionally when I was an older teen, as they were done and wanted their own lives.

@fuckmyuteruslining absolutely as I found to my cost having a 4th at 47 long after I’d finished having children! The GP said my predicament was surprisingly common but most women terminated.

Most women on mumsnet seem to think that you can't get pregnant without medical assistance over the age of about 32!

Meant to quote this!

Exactly, it's bizarre. No-one I know has had IVF, and many of us had babies late 30's, early 40's.

No-one I know has had IVF, and many of us had babies late 30's, early 40's

Yep. And on the other side of the coin my IVF journey began when I was 26... And my naturally conceived surprise baby arrived when I was 37 😂

It was such a personal, complex and traumatic time for me, I'm so glad strangers weren't speculating about it all over the internet.

Yes I find this so strange. Most people I know who have children conceived naturally first babies later than that.

Absolfrickkinlutely.

It depends. You know yourself better and aren’t trying to do it all and prove it all necessarily as well as possibly being better at looking after yourself so it may well balance out. I was anemic when I had my daughter young and suffered for years because at that age I didn’t know about health and didn’t question sexist doctors.
So it’s more complicated than many of you are making out. Also many are making it all about her age and not dads lol

Also, talking about outliers, I am 57, have only recently gone on HRT, and was/am still ovulating, having periods etc etc. Scary that I could still (unlikely), but still conceptually conceive!!

:)

They are also told it can’t happen so don’t try

I also had much older parents than my friends and my friends parents all seemed like dicks in comparison.
My parents were sensitive loving and dedicated. I am very lucky.

But surely not so awful that it would be better never to have been born at all??

Protecting a child from the risk of bereavement in young adulthood by deciding that instead they should simply never be born at all seems quite extreme.

She will have used either frozen or donor eggs. It’s close to totally impossible to have a natural pregnancy at 51. I don’t want women to be fooled into thinking they can fall pregnant naturally well inti their 40s. In reality it’s so unlikely to happen. There are other options of course like donor eggs but they are emotionally exhausting and expensive. No celeb has a duty to tell us about their private affairs of course but I do feel as if it’s creating a really false impression.

Good for her (although at 53 with DS 17) the thought of going through all of the early days again doesn’t appeal. AT ALL!

Is this their first? Not RT the thread.

I LOVE Victoria CM! She’s bright, witty and an ace poker player. What a great role model for women. 😊

I have a great grandmother who had her last child at 51 and died in her nineties. She was fairly active and healthy until near her death. The child was healthy (still doing well now) and as far as I know, she didn't suffer from having older parents. I have a grandmother on the other side of the family who had her last child in her late forties (died in her eighties) and the husband was about 10 years older. In this case, my uncle says that his parents lacked energy and drive, and this impacted him negatively. So, it really depends. There's rarely a perfect time to have a child.

Someone mentioned donor eggs , maybe her eggs were frozen or frozen embryos. I see mums have babies later using these methods.

Not true. It's not "close to totally impossible" at all. Many couples either have effective contraception, (vasectomy or coil) or terminate at that age. Until a woman is either 55, or a year after their final period, they could still fall naturally pregnant. It's higher risk of chromosomal issues, and other issues, of course. But not impossible.

I think it's incredibly crass to speculate about IVF etc. Maybe they just have lots of sex? Whatever, congratulations to them.

Well this news has mainly reminded me to re-order my contraception! (I am 50).

But congratulations to them all.

I do find it odd that so many MNers are convinced you can’t get pregnant at 50 when you are still having regular periods, unless you use someone else’s eggs or have IVF. You’ve got to hope they all have DPs who’ve had vasectomies or have stopped having regular sex.

It's not odd at all. Getting pregnant at 50 is extremely rare, not impossible, but still almost unheard of. As a child growing up I heard the older women in my family talking in shock and awe of a woman on my Nan's street having twins at 50! It was obviously extremely uncommon then and even though I am now over 60 myself I don't know of a single person who has had a baby past the age of 45. Of course contraception is better now and of course many older women who have an unwanted pregnancy can more easily access a termination, but pretending that it isn't that unusual to conceive, carry a pregnancy and give birth at 50+ is just stupid.

Of course these days it’s unusual- in the same way it’s been a few generations since families with 10+ kids were the norm.

it’s the number of posters who are convinced it’s not possible without IVF/donor eggs etc. that you can’t just get pregnant at 50 and carry a baby to term just after your 51st birthday. It’s perfectly possible, and please use contraception if you don’t want any more dcs, even if you are out of your 40s but haven’t gone through the menopause yet.

When I researched my family tree I found my great great grandmother had her last baby at 50. She lived well into her 90s as did he.
And she raised all 12 of her children into adulthood.
I was quite surprised about Victoria Coren Mitchell, but mainly because I had not realised she was 51 I would have guessed she was early 40s.