53-Year-Old Gives Birth to Twin Girls

A 53-year-old woman, one of the oldest to become pregnant with the help of medical technology, gave birth Tuesday to twin girls.

The babies, born about 12 weeks prematurely, were in stable but guarded condition at Martin Luther Hospital, spokesman Dennis Gaschen said. The mother, Mary Shearing, was in good condition.

The first baby, Amy Leigh, was 2 pounds, 2 ounces. Her sister, Kelly Ann, weighed 2 pounds, 12 1/2 ounces, Gaschen said.

Gaschen said babies delivered after 24 weeks of gestation are considered to have some chance of surviving. The Shearing twins are 28 weeks.

Seven years ago, the woman, an avid skier and former amateur body builder, married Don Shearing, who is now 32.

Officials at the hospital say they believe that Mary Shearing, who has three grown children and two grandchildren by a previous marriage, is the oldest woman to achieve a double pregnancy via a technique that has been pioneered over the last five years to help women become mothers even after menopause.

By this technique, eggs donated by a younger woman are fertilized with the sperm of the patient’s husband and then implanted in her uterus.

The older woman’s primary obstacle to getting pregnant, doctors say, is not the aging of her uterus but the aging of her eggs or the shutdown of the ovaries.

The donor’s name wasn’t made public. The embryos were implanted May 15.

Dr. David Diaz, medical director of the hospital’s reproductive medicine program, said Shearing’s good health and fitness helped her make chances of a successful childbirth equal to those of a younger woman.

Last month, when Shearing announced her pregnancy during a news conference, she said that it has been the couple’s dream to have children.