57-year-old woman gives birth to baby boy years after death of teen daughter

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Age is nothing but a number to a 57-year-old woman in New Hampshire who recently gave birth to a baby boy, five years after the death of her teenage daughter.

Barbara Higgins gave birth to her son Jack on March 20, making her one of the oldest women in the United States to give birth, NBC Boston reported last Thursday, March 25. She looked back on her suffering from the sudden death of her daughter Molly in 2016.

Higgins said Molly was only 13 when she died from an undiagnosed brain tumor. As she tried to cope with the loss, she became consumed with the thought of getting pregnant again.

“I started having these dreams that I wanted to have a child,” she said, also acknowledging that she initially found it “crazy” to go through another pregnancy. She thought her mind was simply playing tricks on her or she was traumatized from Molly’s death, she told NBC’s “Today” show on March 26.

Higgins said her dreams were consistent but not too specific. However, they always left her wanting to begin a path to motherhood again.

“I would wake up with this compelling feeling that I need to call the doctor today, I need to work on this, I need to begin this process,” she said in the report. Her husband Kenny Banzhoff was also on board with having a new baby.

The couple found a clinic that could help with in vitro fertilization for women in their 50s, and decided to try for another child. Higgins described her experience with IVF as “one relatively easy step after another” but noted that the method may not work for all women.

Higgins lives a healthy lifestyle and even managed to lift weights on the day she went into labor, but her doctors still monitored her closely throughout her pregnancy. They did extra blood work and scheduled additional appointments with the couple to make sure everything was going well with Higgins and her baby.

The couple said some people questioned their decision to have another child given their old age, but they chose to shake off the remarks instead.

“We beat the odds. I’m so proud of her,” Banzhoff said in the report.

“Why should Jack not get to be alive just because I’m old?” Higgins added. She also expressed hope for her story to inspire other women who may be struggling to get pregnant. Dana Cruz/JB

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