The Times July 08, 2006
Britain's oldest mother, 62, gives birth to a son
By Jonathan Richards
BRITAIN’S oldest mother described last night her joy at having given birth to a baby boy at the age of 62.
Patricia Rashbrook, who became pregnant after having IVF treatment from a controversial Italian doctor, said that seeing her new son for the first time was “beyond words”.
When “JJ” — who has a shock of black hair — was delivered by Caesarean section at 9.53am on Wednesday, he made Dr Rashbrook and her husband, John Farrant, the oldest parents in the country.
The 6lb 10½oz baby has already faced cameras. “He is adorable,” Dr Rashbrook, a child psychiatrist, said last night from Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, where she was breast-feeding the newborn. “Having been through so much to have him we are overjoyed. His birth was absolutely wonderful and deeply moving for both of us. The whole thing has a dream-like quality and yet the reality of our son’s existence is an intense experience.
“He was born with Elgar’s Salut d’Amour playing in the background — music we had also chosen for our wedding. We are looking forward to taking him home.”
Mr Farrant, 60, a higher education management consultant, told the Daily Mail: “The first thing I saw when he was born was that shock of black hair then, when I saw the rest of him, I was struck by his beauty in miniature, his perfection.
“Before his birth I thought I would weep copious tears, and goodness knows I brought along enough hankies, but when I first saw him I was simply awestruck. I thought, ‘Here he is, after all this waiting, and we’ll be together for ever because I’m his Daddy’. The tears came later, when the three of us were alone together in our hospital room after the operation. I felt transformed, as if fatherhood had fulfilled a need in me that I hadn’t acknowledged before I met Patti,” said Mr Farrant, from Lewes, East Sussex, whose previous marriage ended childless in 1982.
The operation was straightforward. Asked how she felt about the fact that the baby was biologically her husband’s, but not her own, Dr Rashbrook, who used an egg donor as part of IVF treatment, said: “I feel exactly the same as if he were biologically mine. I carried him for nine months.”
The couple, who have been together for eight years, first sought help from Severino Antinori, the controversial Italian fertility doctor, in 2002. After four unsuccessful rounds of IVF treatment in Rome, they flew to Russia after the Italian law changed and Dr Severino could no longer treat them in his country.
They were stunned when Dr Rashbrook conceived, and apart from an early threat of miscarriage, the pregnancy has been problem-free, with Patti, as she is known to her friends and family, eating organic food and omitting alcohol and caffeine.
Rebutting suggestions that she and her husband had put their needs above the future welfare of their child, Dr Rashbrook, who has three grown-up children, said: “We would not have gone ahead if we’d felt we would not be good parents. I have always looked and felt very young, but nevertheless we have younger friends with children who have agreed to act as surrogate parents should anything happen to us.”
MOTHERS' PRIDE
The world’s oldest mother is Adriana Iliescu, from Romania, who had a daughter last year at the age of 66
The oldest woman to have twins is Laura Cohen, 59, from New Jersey
Pauline Lyon, 62, who gave birth at 51 and 55, hopes to become Britain’s oldest mum at 64
The number of British women having babies in their forties has nearly doubled in the past decade
thetimesonline.co.uk
Britain's oldest mother, 62, gives birth to a son
By Jonathan Richards
BRITAIN’S oldest mother described last night her joy at having given birth to a baby boy at the age of 62.
Patricia Rashbrook, who became pregnant after having IVF treatment from a controversial Italian doctor, said that seeing her new son for the first time was “beyond words”.
When “JJ” — who has a shock of black hair — was delivered by Caesarean section at 9.53am on Wednesday, he made Dr Rashbrook and her husband, John Farrant, the oldest parents in the country.
The 6lb 10½oz baby has already faced cameras. “He is adorable,” Dr Rashbrook, a child psychiatrist, said last night from Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, where she was breast-feeding the newborn. “Having been through so much to have him we are overjoyed. His birth was absolutely wonderful and deeply moving for both of us. The whole thing has a dream-like quality and yet the reality of our son’s existence is an intense experience.
“He was born with Elgar’s Salut d’Amour playing in the background — music we had also chosen for our wedding. We are looking forward to taking him home.”
Mr Farrant, 60, a higher education management consultant, told the Daily Mail: “The first thing I saw when he was born was that shock of black hair then, when I saw the rest of him, I was struck by his beauty in miniature, his perfection.
“Before his birth I thought I would weep copious tears, and goodness knows I brought along enough hankies, but when I first saw him I was simply awestruck. I thought, ‘Here he is, after all this waiting, and we’ll be together for ever because I’m his Daddy’. The tears came later, when the three of us were alone together in our hospital room after the operation. I felt transformed, as if fatherhood had fulfilled a need in me that I hadn’t acknowledged before I met Patti,” said Mr Farrant, from Lewes, East Sussex, whose previous marriage ended childless in 1982.
The operation was straightforward. Asked how she felt about the fact that the baby was biologically her husband’s, but not her own, Dr Rashbrook, who used an egg donor as part of IVF treatment, said: “I feel exactly the same as if he were biologically mine. I carried him for nine months.”
The couple, who have been together for eight years, first sought help from Severino Antinori, the controversial Italian fertility doctor, in 2002. After four unsuccessful rounds of IVF treatment in Rome, they flew to Russia after the Italian law changed and Dr Severino could no longer treat them in his country.
They were stunned when Dr Rashbrook conceived, and apart from an early threat of miscarriage, the pregnancy has been problem-free, with Patti, as she is known to her friends and family, eating organic food and omitting alcohol and caffeine.
Rebutting suggestions that she and her husband had put their needs above the future welfare of their child, Dr Rashbrook, who has three grown-up children, said: “We would not have gone ahead if we’d felt we would not be good parents. I have always looked and felt very young, but nevertheless we have younger friends with children who have agreed to act as surrogate parents should anything happen to us.”
MOTHERS' PRIDE
The world’s oldest mother is Adriana Iliescu, from Romania, who had a daughter last year at the age of 66
The oldest woman to have twins is Laura Cohen, 59, from New Jersey
Pauline Lyon, 62, who gave birth at 51 and 55, hopes to become Britain’s oldest mum at 64
The number of British women having babies in their forties has nearly doubled in the past decade
thetimesonline.co.uk
