Mother, aged 72, considering a sibling for her five-year-old daughter

A 72-year-old woman who gave birth aged 66 is considering having another child and becoming the world’s oldest mother once again. Adriana Iliescu said fertility trials in England involving a 70-year-old woman had inspired her to believe that it would be possible for her to have another child. The Romanian became the world’s oldest mother in January 2005 when she gave birth to Eliza, but she has since been beaten in the record books by Rajo Devi, a 70-year-old Indian woman whose daughter was born in November 2008.

Ms Iliescu, a writer and part-time university lecturer in Romanian literature, who lives with Eliza in a two-bedroom flat in Bucharest, said: “Medically, it’s possible. I understand there are trials going on with a 70-year-old woman in England, so it could be done. I am fine and healthy and I think it would be possible to have another child in the future, but I’m not in a rush at the moment.



“I am so close to Eliza, so bonded with her, I’m not sure I’d be able to consider having another child if it actually came to it. Eliza is energetic and fun — a very happy child. She is everything to me and nothing else counts or matters. The child is mine and that’s all I care about, but medically it is not impossible for me to have another child.”

Women who give birth in their fifties and sixties are more likely to suffer complications such as high blood pressure or diabetes, or to give birth by caesarean section, studies have shown. Older mothers are also more likely to have babies born prematurely or to develop a condition called pre-eclampsia, which can cause serious complications for both mother and child.