60-year-old Calgary mother welcomes twins

[Catty1]

An interesting counterpoint to the octuplet story. The main criticism here is similar - the mother went 'home' to India for in-vitro fertilization, and came back to Canada to have her twins. They were not only delivered by emergency Caesarean, but she had a hysterectomy as well. The costs of this decision come out of the Canadian taxpayer's wallet as well.

She has been in Canada 5 years, and speaks no English. How will she deal with her kids being in English speaking schools? She will not be able to teach them to speak ahead of time.

Maybe no big deal there - they'll have friends - but I wish she had stayed in India for the birth and follow up NICU and hysterectomy, and come back to Canada later.

JMO

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/sto...ld-mother.html

60-year-old Calgary mother welcomes twins
Last Updated: Thursday, February 5, 2009 | 1:19 PM MT

CBC News

Ranjit Hayer delivered her twin boys at Calgary's Foothills Hospital on Tuesday morning. (CBC)

Ranjit Hayer tried for decades to have a child, enduring multiple miscarriages, surgery, even the trauma of being robbed by a fertility doctor. Finally, after a successful IVF treatment, the Calgary woman gave birth to twins — at age 60.

She is believed to be among the oldest Canadian women to give birth.

Hayer's boys were delivered seven weeks prematurely by C-section at Calgary's Foothills Hospital on Tuesday morning, CBC Radio's The Current reported Thursday. The mother is recovering in intensive care, while the twins are in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

'I always said there should be a baby. I had my heart set on it. I wanted a baby.'— Ranjit Hayer, new mother

One of the babies is breathing with the help of special equipment, while the other boy is in the special care unit. Doctors say both are doing well. The twins will be kept in hospital until they reach a specified weight and can breathe on their own.

"My mind was always uneasy. I always said there should be a baby. I had my heart set on it. I wanted a baby," Hayer said from her hospital bed through a Punjabi translator.

"I used to say to my husband, 'Go ahead, marry someone else. You have earned so much.'

"He used to say to me, 'There's nothing wrong with you. If God wants to give us kids, he will.'"

Case raises ethical questions

Hayer's case — especially her age — has raised many ethical questions about how far to push the frontiers of medical science, even from the Calgary specialist who helped her.

"We can do so much but the question is, should we do it just because we can do it?" said obstetrician Colin Birch, who was excited by the challenge but says he has yet to reconcile the social implications.

"It all sounds very fine when this age group — isn't it fantastic what medical technology can do, how we're stretching the boundaries and everything else — but there's so much more involved in this. It's not just having the babies and being born," he told CBC.

"There's not just one generation gap here, there's two generation gaps. They're really what would be like the age of grandparents."

Hayer, who is originally from India, tried for years to get pregnant with her husband, but she miscarried three times.

After Hayer became a permanent resident in Canada, an obstetrician gynecologist diagnosed a problem with Hayer's womb and recommended surgery. She had the operation in Calgary but she still couldn't conceive.
Woman got pregnant through fertility treatment in India

About 10 years ago, the couple paid a doctor in India for in vitro fertilization, but he took off with their money.

The couple spent years working and saving up their money in Canada. After being turned down for IVF in this country because of her age, Hayer returned to India for the treatment using donor eggs last year — and got pregnant with triplets.

'I couldn't imagine if I was 65 having two five-year-olds running around crazily. The energy to do that is incredible.' — Dr. Colin Birch

"I thought it was a joke because the referral said 60-year-old patient with triplets, and I thought one of my colleagues or somebody's just playing jokes with me or up to mischief, and then actually the patient turned up in my office," Birch recalled.

One of Hayer's embryos had to be terminated for medical reasons and the pregnancy with twins left her with high blood pressure and diabetes.

She also had a condition called placenta previa — where the placenta is attached to the bottom of the uterus and covers part or all of the cervix and can cause severe bleeding. Hayer spent the last four weeks in hospital so doctors could deliver the babies at a moment's notice if necessary.

Hayer began to hemorrhage this week so Birch performed an emergency C-section to deliver the twins. The bleeding was so severe he had to take out the woman's uterus. Hayer was admitted to the intensive care unit, where she required blood transfusions to stabilize her condition.

Debate in medical community

The cutoff age in Canada for IVF is between 45 and 50 years old.

Glenys Godlovitch, who chairs the health research ethics board at the University of Calgary, said there are many situations where patients return to Canada for care, after choosing to pay for treatment elsewhere.

"We need to think of this as the broader context, not just the individual circumstances here, as to what obligation is there in the Canadian health-care system or on the Canadian taxpayer to support the after-care for people who've received an initial intervention, at cost, somewhere outside of Canada," she said Thursday.

There are also the social implications of raising children when the parents may not live long enough to see them grow up.

"I couldn't imagine if I was 65 having two five-year-olds running around crazily. The energy to do that is incredible," said Birch.
With files from Dr. Brian Goldman

[RICHARD]

Better living thru chemistry!

[Catty1]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/sto...s-culture.html

Culture significant consideration in case of 60-year-old mother: doctor
Last Updated: Friday, February 6, 2009 | 3:20 PM MT

CBC News

A Calgary doctor says Ranjit Hayer's decision to have twins at age 60 should be considered through the lens of South Asian cultures.

As CBC News first reported Thursday, Hayer is the Calgary woman who gave birth to twin boys this week after travelling to her native India for in vitro fertilization.

'This is a big relief because it's normalized their perspective. It's normalized their life.'— Dr. Harjot Kaur Singh

The case, especially Hayer's age, has raised ethical questions about how far to push the frontiers of medical science, social debate over how fair it is for children to have elderly parents, and resentment that the Canadian health-care system paid for Hayer's delivery and the treatment of her premature babies.

Dr. Harjot Kaur Singh, a family physician born in India, raised in Brooks, Alta., and educated at the University of Calgary, said she empathizes with Hayer because having a family and being a mother are highly valued in India and most other eastern cultures.

She explained that as a woman, not having a child would be seen as unfulfilling, and even as a tragedy.

"It would be abnormal to not have children, and so I think for them, this is a big relief because it's normalized their perspective. It's normalized their life," Singh said. "It's really given them some joy and happiness.

"Now, I'm not saying that this should medically have been done or not, but I'm looking at it from the viewpoint of the cultural perspective."

The Hayers' nephew, Tony Hayer, said family is a big part of their Punjabi culture and the couple, who lived by themselves, would visit often with relatives and their children.

"They would see the families and always felt left out," Tony Hayer told the Calgary Sun. "Out of a lot of relatives, they were the only ones married but without children."

Extended family support helps older parents

Dr. Amninder Shergill, a physician at the Northeast Calgary Women's Clinic, said becoming a mother at 60 carries too many medical risks.

Shergill, who grew up in India and studied medicine there, said most Indian women tend to have their children while they're still young.

"We have history of having lots of kids … but not with your first-time pregnancy at this late age with in vitro, no," she said.

As for concerns that Hayer and her husband will not live long enough to see their twins grow up, Singh points out it's common in eastern cultures to rely on a network of relatives.

"The extended family as a unit raises the child. Even we see now in India, where the grandparents will be in the village and they will be taking care and raising the kids, and the parents will be in the city earning an income," she said.

"I don't think there is a generational change. I think that perspective has always been there."

[Twisterdog]

I believe if you can afford to foot the bill for your children yourself, from birth through college, have as many as you want.

However, if you can't afford them, don't have them. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's how I feel.

I had one child. I paid his way, I never took a penny of public assistance. No way on this earth I could have afford two children, let alone six or eight or twelve. I could feed one, so I had one. Common sense.

But my tax dollars go to support women who want to have six or ten children. They don't have to worry about who is feeding them all.

[Marigold2]

I feel the same way. If you can't afford a child don't have one, get yourself a pet rock.

I believe if you can afford to foot the bill for your children yourself, from birth through college, have as many as you want.

However, if you can't afford them, don't have them. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's how I feel.

I had one child. I paid his way, I never took a penny of public assistance. No way on this earth I could have afford two children, let alone six or eight or twelve. I could feed one, so I had one. Common sense.

But my tax dollars go to support women who want to have six or ten children. They don't have to worry about who is feeding them all.

[RICHARD]

I feel the same way. If you can't afford a child don't have one, get yourself a pet rock.

Some people are as dumb as rocks, so that would be a perfect adoption.

[Laura's Babies]

I want to know what any woman is thinking having a baby at that age?