For the love of kids

New Zealand's oldest mother, Lyn Mason, and her husband Ian tell Denise Irvine how they cope with their young family and other people's curiosity.It's a few days before Celine Mason's birthday, and when asked what she'd like as a present, she replies promptly, "a little pony".This is not of the four-legged, ride-on variety, but the brand of My Little Pony toys popular with girls, and Celine would like to add another one to her collection. She fishes in the toy cupboard and shows some of her favourites.Big brother Dean, 8, had his birthday in July, and he got a Star Wars Lego set that he's obviously...

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Almost 50 and I Want to Get Pregnant

As I checked out a tall, slim man in his thirties with salt and pepper hair at a Greenwich Village party, a lady astrologist a couple of years older than moi looked my way and said, "When we get to this age, we lose interest in men." I assume she believed I would agree with her reading of the situation, but I, a divorced, almost forty-nine-year old Jewish female from New York City, still have a seventy-year-old aunt who dates. I also contemplated how we women "peak" sexually in our forties, but I am one year away from, gulp, fifty. And the thing is, I want to be pregnant again. I already have...

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Karen Johnston, 54, gave birth to twins

'I went through the menopause six years ago and was too old for fertility treatment in the UK 'Karen Johnston, 54, gave birth to twins Asa and Imogen 13 weeks prematurely in March. She lives in Bicester, Oxfordshire, with husband Roger, 55, a former Army sergeant who now works for a car manufacturer. The couple have eight other children — Daniel, 33, Jemma, 28, Scott, 27, Amy, 26, Aiden, 17, Bethany, 14, Joseph, 13, and Willow, two. Karen says:Having had children in my 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, I honestly think the best age is your 30s.In my 20s I felt torn between my children and wanting to socialise...

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Mandy Parry, 46, 7 cycles of IVF, 5 attempts at donor egg insemination

'We followed seven cycles of IVF and five attempts at donor egg insemination'Mandy Parry, 46, is a teacher and lives in Bristol with husband Mark, 47, a community safety officer, and their five-month-old daughter Violet. Mandy says:Having been through seven years of gruelling, heartbreaking fertility treatment, I’d urge any women thinking about delaying motherhood not to, for their own sakes.I’d have loved children in my early 30s but I didn’t meet the right man, Mark, until I was 39.When we started trying for a family six months later I kept miscarrying and discovered that my eggs were no longer...

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