Never say never. Those are the words that Claudette Cook shares every time she looks down at her children that she just gave birth to at age 60 — yes, 60 years old!
Cook and her husband Ross married 10 years ago. Neither had ever had any children, but both had always dreamed of starting a family. They began trying, but nine years ago doctors told the couple that it would be impossible for Cook to conceive. What happened in the intervening years is not entirely clear, but at some point Cook saw an IVF specialist and then learned earlier this year they were expecting twins.
“It is so awesome, it’s was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve got TWO in here!’ ” Cook told WAFF News. “And then we kept looking at the ultrasounds, and my husband kept taking pictures.”
MUST READ: Why Some Black Women Have A Hard Time Giving Birth
On Sunday, one month before her due date, Cook delivered the fraternal twins, both weighing 5 lbs., via C-section.
“Age is not a number with God,” she says. “Plus I was healthy and in good shape. And I was like, ‘God, I know I can do this. No matter how hard it was, it was like, he brought me through it all.’ ”
Cook became choked up when talking about how precious little Isaac and Isaiah are to them, and how she looked to God to see her through the tough times. “No matter how hard it was, He brought me through it all, so, awesome God.”
The twins are healthy and reportedly doing find. They are staying in the hospital for a few more weeks for observation, but are expected to be home soon.
A total of 677 US women over the age of 50 gave birth in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Report.
That’s an increase from 2012, when 600 women over 50 gave birth. It’s also a dramatic increase from 1997, when there were just 144 such births. Since then, the number of women over 50 giving birth has generally risen each year, the report says.
About a third of the women over 50 who gave birth in 2013 were having their first child. Over half were having their first or second child.
For some perspective, births to women over 50 amounted to 0.02% of total births in 2013. There were more than ten times as many births among women 45-49 than women 50-54.
The age group with the most births was women age 25-29, with 1,120,777 births. For women past age 35, the number of births drops quickly. Births to women age 35-39 were less than half those for women age 30-34.
Though the majority of births are still to women under 35, birth rates for older women have increased in the past 20 years.
Congrats to the Cook family and their new additions!
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