More than five women aged 50 and above gave birth every week in the UK the three years up to 2021, as the British Fertility Society warns IVF delays caused by lockdown has helped fuel the rise of middle-aged mothers, the Telegraph can reveal.
At least nine women aged 60 and over - including two pensioners - have had babies in English hospitals since 2019 as mothers continue to delay becoming parents.
Meanwhile, more than 80 over-55s gave birth, a 25 per cent increase compared to the three years prior, the UK’s Office for National Statistics data, commissioned by the Telegraph, shows.
It comes as the average age of women giving birth hit a record high of 30.9 in 2021 as young people put parenthood on hold while pursuing careers and stability.
Gynaecology waiting lists snowballed by 60 per cent to more than 570,000 - more sharply than any other speciality - during the pandemic when the fertility industry was shut down for several weeks.
Delays in investigating fertility issues means many women have fallen several years behind on their journey being diagnosed and assisted, Dr Raj Mathur, chair of the British Fertility Society has said.
Dr Mathur said there has been “a gradual increase in the number of women approaching clinics for fertility treatment using donor eggs, close to or over the age of 50″.
He added: “Because of the pandemic, a patient may have started seeking treatment when she was 47, but is now 50.”
The spike in older women giving birth comes after a string of high-profile celebrities have become middle-aged mothers over the past few years.
Doctors labelled the increase in older women having babies the “Janet Jackson effect” after the singer gave birth to her son Eissa Al Mana aged 50 in 2017.
Rachel Weisz gave birth to her first child with husband Daniel Craig in 2018 when she was 48, while supermodel Naomi Campbell became a mother via a surrogate aged 50 in 2021.
824 women over the age of 50 gave birth between 2019 and 2021 - the equivalent of 275 per year. This is an almost 20 per cent increase compared to the 701 for the three years prior.
Two women aged 61 gave birth under the care of South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one in 2020 and the second in 2022, while a woman over the age of 65 gave birth in Bristol in 2019, according to data obtained through Freedom of Information requests.
While some of the women in their fifties may have conceived naturally, the majority will have sought treatment abroad - dubbed fertility tourism - before coming back to the UK to have the birth.
There is no cut-off in law regarding the age a woman can have fertility treatment, but doctors in the UK will generally not treat patients over the age of 51 - the average age of the menopause - because of the risk of health complications.
There were fewer than five births to women aged 50 and over after receiving treatment in the UK using their own eggs in 2019, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). This jumped to 55 when using donor eggs.
Dr Ippokratis Sarris, consultant and director of King’s Fertility, said he thinks “every clinic” has been approached by women aged 50 and over asking about fertility treatment.
While he has occasionally seen women in their sixties, this has been because they wanted to explore the possibility of being a surrogate for a daughter or relative who cannot carry their own baby. But the same limits and considerations apply.
He said: “Because we can do something medically, it doesn’t always mean that we should.”
Older mothers have a higher risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and having a premature baby. They also often require C-sections and may need to stay in hospital for several days or weeks after the birth.
Dr Mathur said there are “clinical, medical, and some ethical issues with donor egg conceptions in women of increased years, especially those over 50″.
Susan Bewley, Emeritus Professor of Obstetric and Women’s Health at King’s College London, said “the birth of a healthy baby is a joy, at any age, in any way.”
But she added: “Maternal death and near-misses, like going into ICU or having a massive haemorrhage, all those things go up exponentially with age. Even if the egg is young, the body is not young.”
As the age of mothers continues to increase, it is “definitely going to be worse for women’s health and babies’ health. But that’s what we’re here for - we’re here to help.”
She said: “Doctors are needed when things go wrong. But, you know, we can tempt disaster, and that’s never a good idea.”
Clare Ettinghausen, a director at HFEA, said: “All fertility clinics in the UK must adhere to the guidance in the HFEA Code of Practice as well as any relevant professional body guidance relating to treatments.
Elizabeth Munro: “It’s not my physical age that is important – it’s how I feel inside.”
British mother Elizabeth MuShe added: “It doesn’t interest me that I’m going to be the oldest mum in the country. It’s not my physical age that is important – it’s how I feel inside. Some days, I feel 39. Other days, I feel 56.”
Miss Munro, who is the director of plastic manufacturing firm Delmore Ltd, became pregnant at the Isida clinic in Kyiv, where an IVF cycle using donor eggs and sperm cost around £4000 (NZ $7926) at the time.
She sought treatment abroad after two decades of fertility heartbreak. She had two rounds of IVF treatment in her forties before she was told she could no longer continue with the procedure.
Months later she separated from her husband Robert Adeney, chairman of the upmarket equestrian and leather goods firm Swaine Adeney Brigg, who already had three grown-up children from a former marriage.
Miss Munro had her son 20 years later after going abroad for treatment. Her birth followed that of British woman, Dr Patricia Rashbrook, who gave birth to a son aged 62 after treatment in Russia. Munro sparked controversy 14 years ago when she gave birth weeks before her 67th birthday after undergoing IVF treatment in Ukraine.
The divorced mother-of-one, now 79, who lives in a Suffolk village, said at the time of her pregnancy: “It will be just me and my baby. I know some people won’t understand, but I don’t care”.