Comments on: 66-Year-Old Woman To Give Birth. Judgement in 3…2…1…

By: Yes We Can (Have Babies When We Want To) - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Yes We Can (Have Babies When We Want To) - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:02:24 +0000

[...] written before about the rush to judge women who use fertility treatments to conceive postmenopausally. The [...]

By: labor nurse, cnm

labor nurse, cnm — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:12:28 +0000

ok, I am the first to defend ANY woman’s right to bear children if she pleases, but what people are not aware of here of how dangerous this is to the woman and her fetus. First off, major hormone treatment must be undergone by the woman to prep her post-menopausal uterus for implantation. (BTW, it is not her egg that is used…there are none to really harvest at 66). Next is all the risk those drugs bring to a woman of that age. Next, pregnancy increases overall fluid volume of the woman, which in a 66 year old can be very taxing, if not permanantly damaging to a 66 year old woman. She is also at increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (because of her age and the pregnancy), high blood pressure…the list goes on. So if the argument is made that she shouldn’t be impregnanted via IVF, it can be made quite easily under medical prudence.

By: A 66-year-old woman is pregnant in the UK « Dating Jesus

A 66-year-old woman is pregnant in the UK « Dating Jesus — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:57:02 +0000

[...] The Pursuit of Harpyness begs to differ. [...]

By: yoshimi

yoshimi — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:46:12 +0000

This isn’t a choice I would make, or one that I’d want someone I love to make. I do disagree with her choice. But it’s still her’s to make and I don’t really think it’s my place to worry. And, honestly, I don’t really know why her life is such a big deal to the rest of us.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:07:26 +0000

@emilyanne: You hit exactly what pisses me off about so many of those articles, esp. the ones in the Guardian. They’re invariably girl-on-girl violence. And afteriris is right, that’s a typical trick–if women write misogynist bullshit, newspaper editors think it somehow makes the article less sexist.

By: afteriris

afteriris — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:03:23 +0000

emilyanne – isn’t that the old Daily Mail trick? Get Asian writers to write anti-immigration articles, women to write misogynistic pieces, gay people to write anti-gay marriage polemic. it’s like an editorial extension of the ‘but my one of my best friend’s is…’ defense.

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:52:07 +0000

Sadly i think you are probably entirely correct, which is terribly depressing. What annoys me most in the UK is that a large majority of these articles are written by other women.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:33:48 +0000

@emilyanne: I think it’s kind of a sliding scale with UK newspapers and their woman-hating…one that rarely slides anywhere good. The Times is definitely dodgy in its coverage of women, but these days I’m thinking even the NY Times is too. The Washington Post is about the only paper that I think has an even halfway decent record of not outright insulting women (and that’s hardly a ringing endorsement).

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:28:18 +0000

HistoricUpstart, I think that’s actually a very good point and if I’m honest I wonder how much of my personal squeamishness surrounding this story is a form of similar reaction.

ps Becky – i have to admit to being amused at the idea of the Times as being one of the more reasonable UK papers given that many of the stories attributed to the Mail on sites such as Jezebel are buy-ins from the Times, which I personally think has a shall we say dodgy attitude towards women.

By: HistoricUpstart

HistoricUpstart — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:57:38 +0000

Also, I think a lot of the criticism in the MSM smacks of OLD LAYDEEZ ARE GROSS, and a general outrage this woman is basically saying fuck off to the societal edict that says she should just stay out of sight and continue knitting and planting things in her garden all day.