'Miracle' first baby for woman of 57

Published on Saturday 29 March 2008 19:28

A 57-YEAR-OLD woman has given birth to her first baby.

Susan Tollefsen, from Romford, east London, was sent to hospital for emergency tests on her swelling belly eight weeks ago and it was feared she was suffering from ovarian cancer.

Instead she was congratulated by the sonographer, who told her she was almost 30 weeks pregnant.

Freya was born by Caesarean section weighing 6lb 6oz, and her delighted mother said: "I was stroking and cuddling her and said to her: 'I've been waiting for you for such a long time. Now you have come you really are a little miracle baby'."

The pregnancy follows several years of attempts by Tollefsen, a special needs teacher, and her partner, warehouse manager Nick Mayer, 46, to have a baby by IVF treatment in foreign clinics.

Mayer's sperm was used with donor eggs to create two embryos which were implanted at a Moscow clinic, but Tollefsen was taken to hospital in August with what appeared to be a miscarriage. A subsequent pregnancy test and blood test appeared to confirm it. Tollefsen said she was later referred to hospital after an examination by a private GP revealed a "hard abdominal mass".

She had just undergone an examination at the private Nuffield Hospital in Brentwood, Essex, when the sonographer turned to her and said: "Congratulations".

She now believes she miscarried one of the twins and the other survived. Tollefsen, who met Mayer in 1998, said she thought her chance of having children was over after years of caring for a sick mother while working full-time.