I no longer do a second take when I read news that a woman in her fifties has given birth. This month alone, Victoria Coren Mitchell, 51, announced the arrival of her second child with her partner, the comedian David Mitchell, who is 49. Tana Ramsay, who turns 50 next year, welcomed her sixth child with that gobby 57-year-old chef husband of hers last week. Then there’s Hilary Swank, Janet Jackson, Halle Berry, Laura Linney et al, all who’ve had babies in their very late forties or early fifties.
Tana Ramsay and Victoria Coren Mitchell’s pregnancies barely made headlines. A 50-year-old new mum is a freak event no more. We don’t know the circumstances: did they use IVF, sperm or egg donors, had they frozen their eggs when they were younger; was it a happy accident or meticulously planned? Frankly, it’s none of our business. But, what we do know is that both women carried and gave birth to their babies.
