Elizabeth Adeney, the British woman who is eight months pregnant at age 66, has given some Jamaican women who felt that their biological clocks were ticking away a renewed sense of hope.

Adeney, a first-time mom, has told the press that she does not have to defend what she has done. She noted that her decision was between her and her baby.

"It's not my physical age that is important, it's how I feel inside," she said.

Carolyn Brown has been trying to have a child for a number of years, but to no avail. At 38, she is exploring her options and has even considered in vitro fertilisation.

"I am so proud of this woman. She never stopped until she got what she wanted and I really like her spirit," Brown told Saturday Life.

"She has motivated me and I will continue to try until I succeed."

job unstable

Twenty-eight-year-old Karen Jackson wants to have a child but said her job is unstable and her partner is not quite ready.

"I thought I was running out of time but when I heard of this 66-year-old woman, it was like a sense of relief for me. Not that I am going to wait that late but at least I feel that I do not have to rush things anymore," Jackson told Saturday Life.

Thirty-year-old Keisha Wellington is a career woman and a child was the last thing on her mind a few years ago.

"When I saw that I was approaching 30, I said it was time for me to have a child, because I always heard that it is advised that we have our first child by that age," Wellington said.

relief

She when she heard the news of Adeney, she felt relieved.

"I am not going to wait that long because I feel it is unfair for the child to have his 'grandmother' growing him. But I am glad that I heard this because it has settled my mind a little," she said.

Tanya McKoy is still moving with her plans to have a baby by the time she is 32.

"Puss and dog don't have the same luck, so I am not going to sit around and say she had her child at 66 so I can too," McKoy said.

"I do not want to end up being a lonely old woman with regrets so I have a plan and I am working with that," said McKoy, who will turn 31 in September.

Real names withheld

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com

What is the best age to have a baby?

New research from an American study suggests that the optimal age to have a baby is now 34. Professor John Mirowsky, from the University of Texas, studied more than 2,200 women over several decades, looking at their own and their children's health problems based on when their first child was born.

Women who fared worst were the ones who gave birth in puberty. Health problems began to fall off after this age with the benefits of late motherhood peaking at the age of 34. "At any age, a woman who had her first child at 34 is likely to be, in health terms, 14 years younger than a woman who gave birth at 18," said Professor Mirowsky. "[Women] are really concerned about when it is best to start a family. I hope this will be just one piece of information they can use in making decisions about their own lives."

British fertility experts felt bound to point out that a woman's fertility is also in decline at the age of 35, so any women hoping to have a healthy future life and healthy baby would have to weigh that up against the chance of getting pregnant at all.

Source: http://www.babyminestore.com/newsbestage.html