
On Monday at a private hospital in Melbourne a 63-year-old woman entered the maternity ward.
Accompanied by her 78-year-old husband the woman wasn’t a proud grandmother visiting her first grandchild, nor an excited aunt ready to celebrate a new birth.
This woman was giving birth and as she did the woman made history.
A 63-year-old woman gave birth to a daughter. Via IStock
As she underwent a caesarean section at 34 weeks pregnant to give birth to her first child the woman officially became oldest mother in Australia. At the age of 63 the woman gave birth to a daughter and ignited, once again, the debate over older mothers and what the cut off age for IVF treatment should be in Australia.
Seven News reported that the woman, a Tasmanian, gave birth at Frances Perry House private hospital in Parkville on August 1 supported by her 78-year-old partner.
‘I’m going to have a baby with my sister, and we couldn’t be more excited.’
The couple is reported to have conceived their daughter through IVF overseas, using a donor embryo after several failed in-vitro fertilisation attempts.
The mother and baby are reported to be doing well and will remain at Frances Perry House until she and her daughter are strong enough to head home to Tasmania.
The woman is Australia’s oldest woman to give birth, she beats the previous record by three years held by a Gold Coast woman who gave birth in 2010 at the age of 60.
The unnamed couple are from Tasmania. Image via Seven News.
But far from celebrating the medical advances that make such births possible IVF experts have criticised the use of a procedure in a woman of her age saying it is “irresponsible.”
Monash University professor Gab Kovacs told The Mercury that responsible IVF clinics refused treatments of women over the age of 53, saying that is the “end of natural pregnancy.”
“That child will need looking after for 20 years, and there’s a possibility she won’t be able to do that."
“Our bodies weren’t designed to have children in our 60s. I don’t think any responsible IVF unit in Australia would treat someone of that age, and it’s not a standard of medicine I would condone.”

Top Comments
I had a scan when I was 34 and the technician made a point of scalding me for not having an amnio test, she said as "an older mother" I was irresponsible. At 34 I was considered old.
Curious how all this concern for the baby sits alongside a bedrock feminist article of faith that abortion should be on demand.
What happened to, "my body, my choice" here? That seems to have disappeared real quickly. I doubt this couple decided to do this on a whim or for a bed. Good on them.
The age isn't ideal, but neither is 40 or 30, ideal is 20 or thereabouts. But again, the rivers run in reverse if you suggest women should be responsible and have babies right out of school. No, that's an intolerable suggestion.
There are grandparents raising young children due to the death, incarceration, incapacity or other unfortunate circumstances. If willing courts will and should place children in the care of relatives first.
Let them be, let them raise a family.
Complex issues require brain capacity.
'The age isn't ideal, but neither is 40 or 30..'
That is absurd. A post menopausal body vs an ovulating body. Yes indeed 'my body, my choice' for the wealthy where ethical issues don't rate a thought.
Did you see what happened to the 'oldest woman in the world' who had twin boys by IVF at age 66:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
http://www.independent.co.u...
Have you given any thought the 'rights' of the child?