A 65-year-old became the oldest woman in Israel to give birth. 
 
 Haya Shahar, a hassidic woman from Bnei Brak, had longed for children for years and was unable to get pregnant during her 46-year marriage to 67-year-old Shmuel, the Jerusalem Post reports. 
 
 Shahar finally became pregnant through by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and the Post assumes she had the procedure done in Russia because it’s illegal on a woman over age 54 in Israel. 
 
 Shahar might be the oldest new mom in Israel, but she doesn’t hold the world record. Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara of Spain became the oldest woman to ever give birth in 2006 when she welcomed twins only a few days before turning 67. Adriana Iliescu of Romania also gave birth at age 66. In both cases, the babies were conceived through IVF with donor eggs. Dawn Brooke of the U.K. is currently in the Guinness Records as the oldest verified mother to conceive naturally. She gave birth to a son at the age of 59 years in 1997. 
 
 People are often quick to judge women who get pregnant after age 50, even 40, deeming these older parents selfish and careless. The number one concern is that older parents won’t live long enough to give their children many years of support, encouragement and love. They might not be alive to see their children off to college or to attend their weddings. The CDC life expectancy charts indicate that a child born to two 50-year-olds will lose his father when he’s 25 and his mother when he’s 30. 
 
 What’s more, medical research shows that women who give birth after age 35 face an increased risk problems from preterm labor to gestational diabetes to having a child with autism. 
 
 On the flip side, older parents argue that they’re more mentally and financially ready to care for children than they would have been in their 20s or 30s. 
 
 “We do not recommend this,” Dr. Tal Biron, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the hospital where Shahar delivered, told the Jerusalem Post. 
 
 “It is illegal to perform in-vitro fertilization on a woman of this age, and it is dangerous,” she added. “There are many possible complications. Pregnancy is an unnecessary burden on the mother’s body.” 
 
 In spite of the medical risk, Dr. Biron shared, “We were very excited during the delivery. I have no doubt she will be an excellent mother. She is a very special person. The baby is very cute.” ||||| Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. 
 
 Haya Shahar, a 65-year-old hassidic woman from Bnei Brak who was unable to have a baby during her 46-year marriage to 67-year-old Shmuel, gave birth on Monday to a healthy baby boy by cesarean section at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba. 
 
 
 
 It made her the oldest woman in Israel to give birth – not far behind the world record holder, Spain’s Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, who was a few days shy of 67 when she gave birth to twins. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Shahar’s 2.68-kg. baby was produced by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with donated or purchased sperm – the hospital would not disclose exactly, although it might have been from Russia. It is illegal in Israel to perform IVF on a woman over 54.“We do not recommend this,” emphasized Dr. Tal Biron, an obstetrician/ gynecologist at the Kfar Saba hospital.“It is illegal to perform in-vitro fertilization on a woman of this age, and it is dangerous,” she explained. “There are many possible complications. Pregnancy is an unnecessary burden on the mother’s body.”But Biron added that “we were very excited during the delivery. I have no doubt she will be an excellent mother. She is a very special person. The baby is very cute.”The risk of pregnancy complications increases as the mother’s age increases. Risks connected with childbearing over the age of 50 include an increased incidence of gestational diabetes, hypertension, delivery by cesarean section, miscarriage, preeclampsia and placenta previa (placenta too low in the uterus).In comparison to mothers between 20 and 29 years of age, mothers over 50 are at almost three times the risk of low birth weight, premature birth and extremely premature birth. Their risk of extremely low birth weight, small size for gestational age and fetal mortality is almost double.The Shahars, who were extremely grateful to hospital doctors and nurses, credited their rabbi’s blessing three years ago for the success of the pregnancy.Biron said Haya Shahar presented herself at her department during her 12th week of pregnancy and visited the high-risk pregnancy outpatient clinic weekly, with no need for a long hospitalization.“She underwent ultrasound scans and all other necessary tests,” Biron said. “She always cooperated and never complained. Her message to Israel after the operation was ‘Never give up.’”
– A 65-year-old woman in Israel has just become a mother for the first time. The ultra-Orthodox woman gave birth to a healthy 5.9-pound baby boy this week, reports the Jerusalem Post. Haya Shahar did so thanks to IVF treatment she had outside the country, likely Russia, because Israel forbids the procedure for women older than 54. "We do not recommend this," says Dr. Tal Biron of Kfar Saba hospital. Nevertheless, he added that the baby is "very cute." Shahar's husband is 67, and they'd been trying unsuccessfully to have a baby throughout their 46-year marriage. The Post notes the sperm was either donated or bought, but the hospital won't specify; Haaretz says the couple used a donor egg. While the delivery (by C-section) makes Shahar the oldest woman to give birth in Israel, it's not a world record. Among the older verified births are one in Spain and another in Romania, both with women who delivered at age 66 after IVF treatments, notes the Mommy Files blog at the San Francisco Chronicle. The oldest woman on record to conceive naturally is a woman in the UK who gave birth at 59, it adds. Shahar and her husband credit a rabbi's blessing for their new son. "The baby is a darling and there is no despair in the world, and the chapter never ends," they said. (A 65-year-old woman in Germany is expecting quadruplets.)