A Tasmanian woman has become Australia’s oldest first-time mother after giving birth at the age of 62.
The woman, who has not been identified, gave birth to a daughter at Frances Perry House Private Hospital in Melbourne yesterday.
The baby was born at 34 weeks via caesarean section.
The woman, whose partner is 78-years-old, used an embryo sourced from an overseas donor to conceive after a number of unsuccessful IVF procedures.
She and her child will remain at the Melbourne hospital until they are both well enough to return to Tasmania.
The woman is now Australia’s oldest first time mum, with the previous record holder a woman who gave birth at 60 in 2010.
Monash University professor Gab Kovacs critcised the IVF clinic which helped the mother conceive, saying that providing fertility services to women aged over 53 was “irresponsible”.
“That child will need looking after for 20 years, and there’s a possibility she won’t be able to do that,” she said.
“Our bodies weren’t Âdesigned to have children in our 60s. I don’t think any Âresponsible IVF unit in Australia would treat someone of that age, and it’s not a standard of medicine I would condone.”
In May an Indian woman who claimed to be 72-years-old gave birth to a baby boy with the help of IVF but there are doubts about her age.
The world’s oldest first time mother is Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth in 2005 aged 66.