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Age is no bar for this mother

REDDING: A 62-year-old, visually challenged since birth, gave birth to a healthy 2.3- kg baby boy, her 12th child, becoming one of the oldest to bear a child. She is a grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of three children.

Family members said the delivery went smoothly on Friday, despite earlier concerns about the mother's health.

Janise Wulf, a diabetic, had experienced swelling and higher blood pressure earlier this week, prompting doctors to perform a Caesarean section a week early.

"I believe our only hesitation collectively was her health and her coming through this. Giving birth is hard at any age, in any body, let alone with her being 62," Ms. Wulf's 28-year-old daughter, Desiree Myers, said. Ms. Myers gave birth to a baby of her own four months ago.

Ms. Wulf and her third husband, Scott Wulf, 48, named the red-haired boy, Adam Charles Wulf. He follows just three years behind his older brother, Ian.

``I hate to raise one alone, without a sibling,'' said Ms. Wulf, who was impregnated both times through in vitro fertilization.

Ms. Wulf has given birth to a total of 12 children, although one son died in his 30s and another died at birth with undeveloped lungs.

Of her 10 living children, the oldest is 40.

While Ms. Wulf is not the oldest on record, Friday's delivery put her among only a handful of senior-aged mothers. The oldest woman on record to give birth is a 66-year-old Romanian woman who had a Caesarean section January 15, 2005. Adriana Iliescu was aided by artificial insemination.

The Guinness Book of World Records also lists two 63-year-old women who have given birth: Rosanna Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Acheli Keh of California in 1996.

News reports, however, list Della Corte's age at 62 when she gave birth.

Ms. Wulf is used to defying the odds. Blind since birth, she was a synchronised swimmer in high school, worked as a piano and organ saleswoman and developed a passion for cooking.

She said on Friday that she considers her late-in-life pregnancy a groundbreaking act for older women. "Age is a number. You're as old as you feel," she said. — AP

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