Published: November 12, 1992
A 53-year-old grandmother who became pregnant through test-tube fertilization has given birth to twin girls here.
The new mother, Mary Shearing, is apparently the oldest woman ever to have given birth to a test-tube baby in the United States.
Dennis Gaschen, a spokesman at Martin Luther Hospital, where the twins were delivered on Tuesday, said the oldest post-menopausal woman in the nation to have delivered a test-tube baby previously was 52.
The Guinness Book of Records lists the oldest mother as a woman nearly 57 1/2 years old who gave birth in California in 1956.
Mrs. Shearing's babies, born 12 weeks prematurely and both weighing less than three pounds, were listed as being in guarded condition today. One was delivered vaginally, the other by Caesarean section.
Mrs. Shearing, who has three children and two grandchildren from a previous marriage, was going through menopause when she was implanted on May 15 with embryos obtained by using donated eggs and sperm from her 32-year-old husband, Don. Hormones were used in the first trimester to sustain the pregnancy.
Source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DD113FF931A25752C1A964958260
