Pride Angel

British IVF clinic to help women have babies at 58

Record numbers of women are attempting to become pregnant after the menopause, according to doctors. While the NHS has a cut-off point of 39 for IVF treatment, most private clinics allow women to try to conceive up to the age of 50.

The London Women's Clinic has now said it will consider women aged over 55, and is set to give fertility treatment to two women who are both 58-years-old.

The clinic argued the change was necessary because women were living longer and that other centres would be obliged to review their policies. Its medical director Peter Bowen-Simpkins said numbers contacting the clinic in the last month were still small but represented a huge rise overall.

Until now, only eight women over 55 had contacted the clinic for fertility treatment in the last five years. Since the change in policy, however, six over that age have sought consultation over IVF. The clinic is still deciding whether to agree to the treatment.

Mr Bowen-Simpkins told the Evening Standard: 'These are women who wouldn't have even bothered to contact us in the past. Instead, they would have gone abroad. Now they know there is a chance they might get treatment here.'

The clinic provoked an ethical storm last month after it emerged that doctors held a consultation with Susan Tollefsen, 59, a retired special needs teacher from Essex.

Mrs Tollefsen had her first child aged 57 at a Moscow clinic and would be the oldest woman in the UK to have an IVF baby if she went ahead with treatment. The development comes amid growing debate over the age at which women should be allowed to receive fertility

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

When Sarah Watkins, a 28-year-old mother of two from Leigh, Lancashire, agreed to be a surrogate for a friend, she had no idea how close she would come to tragedy...

Lying on my hospital bed after giving birth, with the doctors and midwives bustling around me, I began to lose consciousness. Sounds and voices were fading into the background. Before I knew what was happening, I was wearing an oxygen mask and waking up to alarm bells as a crash team battled to save my life.

I couldn't see anything and was crying out for my husband Dave. Reaching out, I felt him grab my hand, letting me know he was there. I was more terrified than I'd ever been in my life. This was it: I was going to die.

Above all else, I thought about my two young sons, Matthew, who was two-and-a-half, and 18-month-old Adam, and wondered if they'd ever forgive me for leaving them.

This was not how I imagined it would be when I agreed to be a surrogate mother for a friend.

I couldn't have been happier in my own pregnancies. My hair shone, my skin glowed and everyone commented on how healthy I looked. I'd loved every minute. When Adam was born in April 2007 after an easy labour, I felt bereft at the thought I might never experience pregnancy again.

Dave and I had agreed we could not afford a bigger family. It was during my second pregnancy that I started reading about surrogacy. We'd done it all so easily, but thousands of couples struggle to have a family, spending tens of thousands of pounds and experiencing years of anguish trying to have a baby.

A friend's sister had real problems conceiving, which made the issue feel personal to me. I mentioned to Dave that surrogacy was something I'd be interested in, but he didn't take much interest, presumably thinking it was a whim I'd soon forget about.

But after Adam was born I came across the surrogacy charity COTS and read some accounts on its website forums. I sat Dave down and told him I was serious.

The baby wouldn't be ours - we'd just be keeping it warm 'until it was cooked' - but he wasn't convinced. He was worried I wouldn't be able to cope with being pregnant, holding down a job and looking after two young children.

Dave wasn't worried about giving up the baby because it wouldn't be part of our family, but I know he had doubts about how I'd feel after carrying it for nine months. But I was 26 and had lots of energy.

I wanted that amazing feeling of being pregnant while helping another couple. We looked at the website together and, after a week of badgering, Dave came round to the idea. He said he'd support me.

We filled in the application forms, had Criminal Records Bureau checks and then met a support worker for counselling about what potentially could go wrong, from medical complications to separation issues. I wasn't worried. I'd had two perfect pregnancies and was young, so I couldn't see anything but positives.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

You may have noticed that today we have launched some new changes to the site which will enhance your experience with Pride Angel.

What are the new changes, I hear you ask?

We have updated the search facility to enable you to now search members profiles Worldwide, within Europe and within your specific chosen country. This is especially useful for members who are willing to travel to find their perfect match.

You are now able to search for a specific member by their ‘first name’, this is really useful if you previously saw a profile you where interested in, but forgot to add them to your favourite list.

Now when you send or receive messages within our internal mail, you even get to see an image of the person sending the message, and the county/state and country they are from.

We have also separated the co-parents into co-parents (male) and co-parents (female) this will make it far easier to find your ideal co-parent match.

If you’re new to Pride Angel you will now be asked to verify your email after registering, before you can login to Pride Angel. This change will benefit users using our internal messaging system. By spending a minute verifying your email address we can make sure that you are contactable by other members who may wish to send you a message.

We hope you enjoy our new updates

Pride Angel

Mothers-to-be should be warned that 'eating for two' is a myth, according to draft Health Service guidelines.

They do not need to drink full-fat milk or change their diet at all for the first six months of the pregnancy.

Even in the last three months they need just 200 extra calories a day - the equivalent of a small sandwich.

New advice on weight management during pregnancy comes as the number of obese mothers is rising, with almost one in four women being obese and a further third overweight.

It says women should be advised that being fat puts their baby at risk, but not told to lose weight.

Instead they should be helped to shed excess pounds before getting pregnant and after they have given birth.

The guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is now out for consultation.

Professor Mike Kelly, Director of the Centre for Public Health Excellence at NICE, said: 'Women are bombarded by often conflicting advice on what constitutes a healthy diet and how much physical activity they should do during pregnancy and after birth.

'The aim of developing this new guidance is to provide health professionals with clear recommendations to help them support women prior to and during their pregnancy as well as after they have given birth.

'Many overweight women have healthy babies, but the evidence suggests that there are more risks associated with pregnancies in women who have a BMI of over 30.'

He said the advice takes into account the demands of looking after a small baby and how tired mothers are.

'But it also aims to dispel any myths about what and how much to eat during pregnancy - there is no need to "eat for two" or to drink full-fat milk,' he said.

'It's important for women to understand that weight loss after birth takes time and that physical activity and gradual weight loss will not affect a woman's ability to breastfeed.'

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says the recommended maximum limit for pregnancy weight gain is 10-12 kilograms, around one and three quarter stones.

Rosie Dodds of the National Childbirth Trust said: 'Women are more likely to make changes to their diet when they are pregnant and this opportunity can improve the family eating pattern for the future.

'NCT welcomes this draft guidance which should ensure better consistency of support from health professionals and tailoring of the services offered to the needs of women.

'In some areas, women on low incomes need improved access to affordable nourishing foods, especially fresh fruit and vegetables

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

A woman who suffered 18 miscarriages trying for a baby described her joy today after giving birth to a 'little miracle'. After 13 years of trying, Angie Baker finally gave birth to a baby girl, Raiya, following pioneering treatment.

Ms Baker, 33, from Peacehaven near Brighton, said: 'She's my little miracle. I can't explain how I feel. I'm overwhelmed. It seems like a dream and I still have to pinch myself. She's perfect in every way.'

Raiya was born on December 9 last year, weighing 7lb, and is now a healthy ten-week-old girl

From the age of 20, Ms Baker's miscarriages took place one after another, between five and eight weeks after conception. Doctors told her it was 'just one of those things' but Ms Baker was convinced she must have a treatable problem.

She said: 'Emotionally it was a rollercoaster. Every time I got pregnant I was hoping this was the one and it wasn't going to end in a miscarriage.

'I never gave up. I was desperate for a baby, so I persevered.'

She said she was encouraged by the fact she fell pregnant so easily and said: 'Deep down I always thought it would be a little problem that could be cured.'

She discussed the possibility of adoption with her partner, Lee Gibson, a martial arts instructor. But then, after 17 miscarriages, her best friend's mother read a newspaper article about Dr Hassan Shehata who was doing pioneering work at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. She contacted him for help in 2006 and was referred for treatment Dr Shehata, a specialist in recurrent miscarriages, said: 'Eighteen miscarriages is a huge number. This is the most unusual case I've come across.

'You're more likely to win the lottery than have 18 miscarriages through bad luck. Therefore there must be an underlying cause.' A specialist test, available only at Epsom, in Liverpool and in Chicago in the U.S., showed she was suffering from a fairly common problem, thought to affect about 15 per cent of women.

Ms Baker had high levels of a subtype of white blood cell, known as natural killer (NK) cells, which are responsible for protection from viruses.

Because Ms Baker's NK cells were too aggressive, rather than protecting the pregnancy they mistook the foetus for a foreign body and attacked it.

Dr Shehata's treatment, using steroids, is pioneering because it starts before conception and the doses involved are higher than previously used.

Ms Baker fell pregnant for an 18th time but her troubles were not over.

During the pregnancy it was discovered she was diabetic and the high sugar levels caused by the steroids resulted in another miscarriage. Dr Shehata said: 'The emotion that goes with every miscarriage is huge. Every time it's heartbreaking. A lot of people would give up so it's an amazing story in itself that she persevered.

'She's always smiling and she's willing to try and that makes life easier. She's a dream patient.' The doctor was able to adjust her levels of insulin and the next time her pregnancy was successful. Ms Baker said she is revelling in her role, blessed with a baby who sleeps from 10pm to 6am. She said: 'I absolutely love it. I enjoy every moment. It's so precious. I can't believe she's here and she's mine.' Asked about her partner, Mr Gibson, 31, a karate and kickboxing instructor with the Sama Organisation, she said: 'He dotes on her. She's his little princess'.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

Babies who are unable to crawl at nine months face falling behind at school and struggle to get on with their classmates, a study has revealed.

It found that an inability to reach milestones such as sitting upright or crawling is linked to learning and behaviour problems.

The researchers, who tracked 15,000 children over the first five years of their lives, said a simple screening test before a child reaches their first birthday could prove crucial in preventing youngsters falling behind.

The finding comes from the Millennium Cohort Study, which is looking at 18,818 babies born between 2000 and 2001.

The study by the University of London, Institute of Education, has already shown children from poor families are a year behind their wealthier counterparts when they start school.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

Thomas Beatie is reportedly pregnant with his third child.

US website Momlogic.com said that Beatie was pregnant again but did not confirm a due date.

Beatie, a trans man who lives legally in his acquired gender, has conceived and given birth to two children since 2007. His wife Nancy is unable to conceive.

The Oregon couple's daughter was born in June 2008 and a son followed a year later.

Despite being legally defined as a man for over ten years and having had some gender reassignment surgery, Beatie kept his female reproductive organs.

He is thought to have had natural births with his two children and his wife breastfed both.

Before starting a family, Beatie had been on hormone treatments, but stopped taking them in order to resume menstruating and conceive through artificial insemination. Both children were conceived with the help of sperm donors.

Speaking to Oprah Winfrey in April 2008, Beatie said: "I actually opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day. I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn’t define who I am.”

Read more information on 'Looking for a sperm donor'

Many women may choose artificial insemination at home rather than using a fertility clinic. Reasons for performing home insemination include, the reduced cost, the higher chance of getting pregnant using fresh sperm, the ability to use a known donor or co-parent , and that your partner can be involved in the home insemination process making it feel like you are ‘creating a baby together’.

Home insemination is often performed in the comfort of your own home using an artificial insemination kit, this normally contain syringes, containers for the collection of sperm and some kits also contain speculums and extender tips which enable the sperm to be positioned near to the cervix to improve pregnancy chances.

A question which many people ask Pride Angel is ‘What is the success rate of home insemination?’ This is often difficult to answer because there are so many factors which affect its success. If performed correctly and at the right time then insemination at home is as effective as ‘natural insemination’. Factors which effect pregnancy success, as with natural insemination, include performing the insemination at the right time of the month, ideally just before ,ovulation. This is often performed using an ovulation test.

A woman’s age and general health play a large part in their fertility, trying to get pregnant in your twenties in far easier than in your late thirties or forties. Drinking, smoking and how healthy your diet is also greatly effects your fertility. If using a donor who has not previously had child it is also worth getting his sperm count checked out using a male fertility test such as ‘Fertilcount’.

As with natural insemination, home insemination can take several months to be successful and in some cases can take up to a year, so a commitment from your donor is needed for a minimum of two sperm samples per month.

Home insemination does carry a higher risk of sexually transmitted infection than using frozen sperm from a fertility clinic; therefore Pride Angel recommends you seek advice from your GP regarding health screening checks for yourself and your donor. We also recommend before considering home insemination that you get advice from a fertility law specialist regarding legal and parental rights.

Pride Angel

Women who delay pregnancy are more likely to have a child with autism, a major study suggests.

The research found the risk to be 50 per cent higher for a woman of 40 than it is for a woman in her late 20s.

A number of studies have made a similar link but it had been unclear whether the age of the mother or the father was the more important.

The latest investigation by the University of California looked at all births in the state during the 1990s.

The risk of having a child with autism increased by 18 per cent - nearly one fifth - for every five-year increase in the mother's age. The extra risk was less evident with older fathers.

Janie Shelton, the study's lead author, said: 'This challenges a current theory in autism epidemiology that identifies the father's age as a key factor in increasing the risk of having a child with autism.

'It shows that while maternal age consistently increases the risk of autism, the father's age only contributes an increased risk when the father is older and the mother is under 30 years old.

'Among mothers over 30, increases in the father's age do not appear to further increase the risk of autism.'

Autism is an umbrella term for a range of developmental disorders that have a lifelong effect on the ability to interact socially. It is generally taken to affect one in 100 British children - a figure that some researchers think is too low.

The California study covered 4.9million births and 12,159 cases of autism, according to the report published online in the journal Autism Research.

For older mothers, the progression in the risk of having a child who later would be diagnosed with autism was apparent whatever the age of the father.

When the mother was significantly younger than the father the child's chance of developing autism rose. Children born to mothers under 25 and fathers over 40 were twice as likely to develop autism as those whose father was between 25 and 29.

The study was comprehensive in that it investigated how each parent's age - separately and together - was connected with the risk of autism.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor of public health sciences who contributed to the study, said it was not clear why having an older parent placed a child at risk for autism.

'We still need to figure out what it is about older parents that puts their children at greater risk for autism and other adverse outcomes, so that we can begin to design interventions,' she said.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

We normally give nature short shrift, but IVF could be storing up problems for the future

A few years back, in a book called Everything Conceivable, on the subject – you've guessed it – of infertility treatment, the author, US journalist Liza Mundy, said the unsayable about IVF. If a man isn't able to have children, she suggested, perhaps he ought not to be having them. An inability to father children may be an excellent way of stopping men with dodgy genes from passing them on. Or, as she put it, "Genetic infertility is nature's way of making sure the same mistake does not happen twice. Genetic infertility is nature's levee, if you will, holding back a flood of chromosomal mishaps."

Well, we normally give nature short shrift over here, particularly when it comes to the subject of people being able to have children, pretty well regardless of where they're at – in their 60s, gay-and-lesbian, single, you name it. But whether we're creating problems in the future hasn't featured much in discussions about infertility.

Now there is a new Anglo-German study from London's Institute of Child Health, which bears out the concerns of other experts about the wisdom of a technique for circumventing male fertility problems, called ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection), which involves injecting sperm directly into an egg. That includes sperm that would be also-rans in a normal conception.

Boys conceived by this method were more likely than those conceived naturally to have shorter fingers – apparently men with ring fingers the same length as their index finger tend to have fertility problems. (It's one way for couples to while away their Valentine's dinner – comparing finger lengths.) In other words, thanks to IVF, infertile men are begetting infertile sons. Who may, thanks to IVF, be able to beget more.

And, as Liza Mundy gloomily observed, if they do, "infertility would be magnified, like compound interest". On the downside, the human race could die out. On the bright side, it would make the population experts, who attribute global warming to population growth, happy.

And if you thought that it was just a problem for boys, think on. Another study, this time from St Andrews and Edinburgh universities, found that by the time a woman is 30, only 12 per cent of the eggs she was born with remain. Cue for Bridget Jones-style angst. Then again, since women are born with about two million of them, it sounds like plenty to me.

Read more: www.telegraph.co.uk