PORTLAND -- As shocking as having a child at 51 sounds to some parents, more and more moms are starting their families much later in life.
Oregon's Sen. Ron Wyden announced his wife's pregnancy Tuesday. Their baby is due in December. Senator Wyden is 63 and Nancy Wyden is 51. The couple already has four-year-old twins together. Wyden also has two adult children from another marriage.
Kat Rosenbaum is another example. After five years of trying and countless fertility treatments, she became a mom at age 39.
"It's everything we could have ever hoped for," Rosenbaum said about her now four-month-old twins Rachel and Nicholas. "Before then we just weren't ready. We were enjoying being married."
Debbie Donison will be 50 when her child arrives.
"I'm so excited to have this baby, it's so wanted and loved already," Donison said.
When she remarried, Donison and her husband started fertility treatments, but not before the doctors approval.
"The medical testing is so extensive. It is unbelievable. We went through six months of testing. This is what we want and doctors say that I'm good and that I can do this," she said.
And according to the CDC, the statistics prove this growing trend. In 2009, the number of first-time moms who were over 35 was 264,758.
Compare that to 1992, when that number was 403. But the risks haven't changed
"More than half of those pregnancies will unfortunately miscarry. The risks of a birth defect like a cardiac problems increase by 40 percent along with the chances for still births," said Dr. Leonardo Pereira, the Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine at OHSU.
Both moms accepted the risks, and are up for the challenge.
"Don't let them tell you no. You can do it," Donison said. "We were really ready and we wanted it," Rosenbaum added.
Donison, who will be 50 when her child is born, has a 26-year-old step-daughter who has children of her own, making Debbie a grandma.
