50-year-old Australian woman gives birth without IVF

17:52, 27 July 2011

BRISBANE, Australia. July 27. KAZINFORM A 50-year-old Australian woman has become the country's oldest woman to get pregnant naturally and give birth to a healthy first child, local media reported on Wednesday. Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

Semi-retired Queensland real estate agent Anthea Nicholas had a "one-in-several-million" chance of conceiving without the aid of in vitro fertilization (IVF), the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported.

Nicholas has told the August edition of the Australian Women's Weekly that she firstly thought her symptoms of nausea were the early effects of menopause.

It was her husband Peter Byrne suggested she might be pregnant.

When her pregnancy was confirmed, Nicholas got scared.

"I knew the odds for us would be horrendous," she told the magazine.

"I had massive fear, there's no other word for it."

Australian gynecologist Dr Andrew Cary told the magazine the birth was "a miracle", as Nicholas also suffered from a condition that would make pregnancy and delivery difficult in a woman of any age.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) infertility expert Dr Willa Huston told AAP it wasn't a miracle but was uncommon. Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version

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