Older mothers

Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara died this July. Her death fulfilled the prophecy that older mothers in their 50s and 60s risk abandoning their children early in their lives.1 Bousada had sold her home and travelled from Spain to California for treatment, a case of so called IVF (in vitro fertilisation) tourism, where she lied about her age.1 She told the clinic she was under 50; she was 66. Bousada’s last interview was aired in Amanda Blue’s UK Channel 4 documentary World’s Oldest Mums, screened in July.2 Her twins are being looked after by her nephew.

Fascinated by the public and media furore, Blue tries in her film to get beyond the kneejerk reaction of society to motherhood at extreme ages.2 Blue’s film asks what drives older women to have babies when they might be collecting their pensions.

Was Bousada wrong to do what she did? In the debate