How did Naomi Campbell become a mother at the age of 50?

Naomi Campbell, who is turning 51 on Saturday, shared the news of her baby that took the world by storm.

On Tuesday she shared an adorable picture of her newest addition to the family with a picture of her newborn’s adorable feet, saying: “A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother.” 

Naomi proceeded to change her Instagram bio to start with “mother”, over and above her other numerous roles as a model, actress, cultural innovator and activist. 

 

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With advanced technology, conceiving a child at 40 is a possibility. After 40, a pregnancy is considered high risk. According to a 2019 New York Times article, falling and staying pregnant after 35 may be challenging. Naomi’s age is considered an “advanced maternal age”.

According to Mayo Clinic, some of the risks women over 35 may encounter during and after pregnancy are: 

• Gestational diabetes;
• High blood pressure during pregnancy;
• A low birth weight baby and premature birth;
• The risk of chromosome abnormalities is higher.

Surrogacy 

Naomi’s child could have been born by surrogacy, meaning the baby was carried by another woman. Surrogacy can be gestational through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

This method would have required Naomi to take medication that improves her egg development. When the eggs are mature, they are extracted and fertilised in a culture dish with cleansed semen. After a few days, the fertilised egg is inserted directly into the uterus of the surrogate. 

However, according to Dr David Keefe, a gynaecologist and fertility researcher at New York University, “around age 50, many women are entering menopause, after which egg harvesting isn’t possible”. 

The second option is straight surrogacy, where the surrogate is impregnated directly and the child is genetically related to the surrogate mother. 

Adoption 

For many families, becoming a parent can go beyond biology. Adoption becomes a good option for these families and Naomi could have become a mother through this option. Adoption rates have decreased internationally. According to The Conversation, “by 2015 international adoptions had dropped 72%, to 12,000 in total”.

 In May 2019, fans thought Naomi had adopted a child after sharing a picture on Mother’s Day of her holding a newborn baby. 

 

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Quinquagenarian pregnancy

Women like Janet Jackson had what is known as a quinquagenarian pregnancy, a name given to a pregnancy that occurs at 50-59 years. Jackson gave birth weeks before her 50th birthday. Speculation is that she had a donated egg from a younger female. By age 51, a woman has just 1,000 egg cycles, compared to 500,000 at puberty. 

The quality and the number of a woman’s eggs decrease as she grows older.

If a woman did not freeze her eggs when they were more viable, she could opt for donated eggs from a younger donor. Carrying and birthing a baby will be a high risk during this process, but Jackson proved it is possible. 

Fifty or not, Naomi is a first-time mom and has received words of congratulations from all over the world and can attest there is “no greater love”.