Spanish doctor gives birth to her third child at 62 despite doctors telling her fertility treatment wouldn’t work
A 62-year-old woman who announced she was eight months pregnant with her third child last month has given birth to a healthy girl.
Lina Alvarez’s daughter – who she has given the same first name – was delivered by Caeserean section yesterday.
She was born two weeks ahead of schedule after the Spanish doctor was admitted to hospital with high blood pressure.
The mother-of-three, from Lugo, north-west Spain, began the menopause 20 years ago but underwent fertility treatment in the hope of having more children.
Her pregnancy sparked a heated debate in her native country and prompted calls for an age limit for seeking IVF.
But she shrugged off the criticism and gave birth to her daughter who weighed 5.2lbs.
She said: ‘I’m the happiest person on the planet. Everything went perfectly.
‘When she is 30 I’ll be 90. She’ll have been raised and life expectancy for women is growing all the time.
‘I always wanted to be a mother again but most medical experts said “no”.’
Ms Alvarez added: ‘Then some years ago I met a gynaecologist who agreed to help me if the tests were okay.
‘They were positive and so he helped me to implant an embryo.
‘They said there was only a six per cent chance of success but I got pregnant with a baby girl.
‘I feel like I’m having a second chance and the pregnancy has made me younger and stronger.’
Her eldest son, Exiquio, 28, who is disabled after a medical error left him injured during her pregnancy, has already met his baby sister.
His condition was caused when a gynaecologist damaged his head during a routine test, which also led to the breakdown of her marriage.
He requires constant care and she is her son’s primary carer.
Ms Alvarez had her second child 10 years after her menopause at the age of 52 thanks to IVF treatment.
Samuel, 10, told a local paper: ‘I’m looking forward to resting for at least a couple of days now so I can enjoy time with my sister and recover.
‘My emotions have got the better of me and I’ve been crying a lot out of happiness.’
She ended up having to travel to Madrid to see a gynaecologist after many clinics refused to help her because of her age when she decided she wanted a third baby.
They revealed there was only a six per cent chance of success but she became pregnant with a baby girl shortly after.
The world’s oldest documented mother is Daljinder Kaur from India, who gave birth last year at the age of 70 after two years of IVF treatment. Baby Armaan was born weighing 4.4lbs.
While Britain’s oldest mum is Elizabeth Adeney, from Suffolk, who had a son aged 66 in 2009 after travelling to Ukraine for treatment.