Little girl frolics in the sandbox. An old grandmother is watching her, smiling radiantly with all her wrinkles. The usual picture. With only one difference. Grandma is really a mom!
Give birth - and no nails
In 2005, the Romanian Adriana Iliescu became the heroine of the world press. She gave birth at … 66 years old! More precisely, at the time of delivery, she was 66 years and 230 days old. So Adriana entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most "adult" mother in the world. Her amazing act caused a mixed reaction. Feminists rejoiced, common people were perplexed, and the church condemned. Some even called Adriana nothing more than an accomplice of the devil. Who is she, this strange woman?
All her life, Adriana has worked as a literature teacher at the University of Bucharest (now Iliescu is a children's writer). "I was married to work!" - she admitted bitterly in an interview. However, in her youth, she was still married for real. And even got pregnant. But by that time, the 20-year-old student had had tuberculosis, and doctors recommended an abortion for her. And soon the couple divorced, and Adriana plunged into work. The woman's career is indeed a success. But she did not even have time to think about her personal life. And only at 38 years old, she realized that she was ready for motherhood. However, Adriana was a moral woman, did not have casual lovers (for which the church could actually be proud of her!) And she had no one to give birth to. And about artificial insemination in those years in Romania had not even heard of. So an intelligent and educated person was left alone.
In 1989, the Ceausescu regime was overthrown, the country opened up to the world, and ordinary citizens had the opportunity to travel abroad. By that time, Adriana, as a potential mother, had already "gone into circulation", but the thought of motherhood never left her, and now it has completely turned into an obsession. Having collected all the accumulated money, the woman went to Italy so that the local miracle medicine would help her get pregnant. However, the money ran out earlier than we would like, and the course had to be interrupted. Adriana returned home - confident that she will achieve her goal anyway! When she turned 57, she heard about a compatriot doctor from the city of Timisoara, who was engaged in artificial insemination.
And in 1999 it happened! The stubborn woman finally got pregnant. However, four months later, the fetus died and had to have an abortion.
It would seem that this is enough, because so much effort is wasted, so much suffering has endured Adriana lately! But no. She started looking for a doctor again and eventually got her way. Doctor Bogdan Marinescu from the Bucharest clinic decided on a dangerous experiment. He implanted donor eggs in a "mature" patient, and the day came when during an ultrasound session the doctors saw twin girls in her stomach! Unfortunately, one child died in the womb, so the other was urgently delivered by cesarean section. "Welcome to the world!" - the doctors joyfully greeted the living girl, who was later named Eliza. Now the baby is already 5 years old. Her mother turned 72 …
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The example of others is contagious
The question involuntarily arises: why does a woman need a small child at an advanced age? And young people are not always able to nurse a baby on their own - almost all relatives help mom to cope. But it seems that the procreation instinct is stronger than reasonable considerations, and the woman feels inferior if she has not given birth to a child. And no career, even the most successful, can save a person from the feeling that something in life is unfinished, something has not taken place.
Probably, it was these feelings that overwhelmed another lady at the age of a lucky business woman from the UK, who also decided to give birth at 66 years old. According to her acquaintances, in recent years, Elizabeth Munroe was simply obsessed with the idea of having a child. Unlike Adriana, she had a lot of lovers, but she just could not give birth. Elizabeth, who inherited her parents' commercial talents, comes from a family of business scientists. It was money that was the priority in the family for many years. and they somehow easily fell into Elizabeth's hands. She bought herself a luxurious mansion, where she invited her wealthy and high-ranking friends to visit. Thanks to her wealth, a business woman got into high society - and there she even found herself a husband. At the age of 46, she married businessman Robert Adeni,supplier to the British royal house - he supplied leather goods to the royal family.
But the couple lived together for only eight months. Elizabeth began to put pressure on her husband - they say, I want a child! And he somehow did not show much zeal. Robert already had children from a previous marriage, and. Probably, he did not want to waste time and energy on another baby. The case ended in a scandalous divorce and division of property. For Elizabeth, this meant one thing: she probably will no longer have children. Out of despair, she took up the business with even greater passion.
But in the 1990s, two of her firms collapsed. Completely unsettled, the unfortunate woman sold the mansion and moved to another house in order to change the situation and forget about her troubles.
v After a while, Elizabeth perked up. She increasingly heard stories about women of the "third age", who gave birth through artificial insemination. Following the 66-year-old Romanian Adriana Iliescu, in 2006 the Spaniard Carmen Busada became a mother. who was also 66 with a big ponytail (she turned out to be 128 days older than Adriana and thereby broke her record). In the same year, Elizabeth's compatriot, 62-year-old Patricia Rashbrook, gave birth. Well, in 2008, the planet spread the news about the successful birth of a 70-year-old Indian resident Omkari Panwar. Great! And Elizabeth decided to join the cohort of middle-aged mothers. Her venture was a success: in 2009 a healthy boy was born to her.
Age is not a hindrance?
It looks like a real revolution has taken place in the matter of motherhood and childhood. Now and after the onset of menopause, women can give birth to children - subject to the physical health of potential mothers. True, to be honest, the child carried by such a woman is actually a stranger to her. After all, he was "blinded" from the genetic material of strangers, and the woman in labor actually only endured him, playing the role of a "beaker". However, the mothers themselves are sure that during pregnancy, the fetus also received mother cells, because he ate and drank at the expense of the organism in which he was carrying. In general, they are convinced that the child is their own flesh and blood. So be it. The main thing is that everyone is happy.
But the problem is actually different. In 2009, an event occurred that made many women think about it. Spanish woman Carmen Busada. who turned 69, died of cancer. This means that her twin sons were left orphans at the tender age of three. It's good if relatives take care of the kids. And if a woman is lonely? Adriana found a way out: she hopes that "if something happens" her daughter will be raised by the godfather - the doctor who helped the girl to be born. Well, to the usual questions about her own age, the brave Romanian answers one thing: why are you so sure that I will die soon? According to her, no one knows for whom what term is allotted. For example, Eliza's other godfather suddenly took and died at 49! And Adriana herself can safely live up to 80, or even up to 90 years, and help her daughter arrange her fate. Indeed, why not? True,Carmen Busada also intended to live and live, referring to that. that everyone in her family died at a very old age. But there is an opinion that the cancer that suddenly developed in Carmen could have been provoked by the drugs that she took during the procedures for successful fertilization.
And no matter how you think, there is still a lot of unclear in this matter. Including how long these mothers-grandmothers will really live in the world. Doctors, although they do not approve of such late childbirth, often say that the female body in such "extreme" conditions is renewed and a real revolution is taking place in it. All hidden energy reserves come into play, and the expectant mother suddenly has the strength from somewhere to feed, swaddle, pump, not sleep at night. According to Adriana, in the first - the most difficult - months she only needed one hour to get enough sleep …
So maybe, really, age is not a hindrance to childbirth? And even vice versa: childbirth after menopause pushes old age as far as possible?.. Well, time will tell. The experiment is voluntary! - continues.
Elena Galanova. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 31 2010