A high-flying mother of five approaching her fifties has revealed her plans to try and have a baby through IVF – because she’s struggling to conceive naturally.
Eileen Burbidge, 47, a technology entrepreneur and Treasury advisor, who lives in London, had her first child at 35, and had three sons and a daughter with her second husband.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Eileen said there is no perfect time to have a child, and wants to expand her brood because she ‘loves being a mum’.
She has already had two cycles of IVF but they were unsuccessful, and has looked into adoption.
Mother-of-five Eileen Burbidge, 47, a technology entrepreneur and Treasury advisor, is planning to have another child through IVF – because she says her body is struggling to conceive naturally
Ms Burbidge, who is a partner at Passion Capital, which funds tech start-ups, made the decision after she failed to conceive naturally with her new partner Tom Powell, 32, himself a father-of-one.
She said: ‘I love being a mum so much that my partner and I want to have more children, but I’m at an age when it doesn’t often happen naturally.
‘The youngest I gave birth to is six. We did think when we started trying one and a half years ago that I might be able to conceive naturally, but that hasn’t happened.’
Ms Burbidge, who says she has used a nanny from 8am to 6pm every day to help juggle her job and home life, believes there is never a perfect time for career women to take time out to have children.
She had her first child at 35, and had three sons and a daughter with her second husband. She’s now with a new partner, Tom Powell, 32, and the couple are hoping to have a child together
She continued: ‘I do not think there is any time that seems a like a ‘good’ time really.. For career women, I don’t think there is even an ideal time to take nine months out while your body changes.’
The number of older mothers has soared in recent decades, as more women concentrate on their career and start families later.
But doctors tend to warn women not to leave it too late to have children. They stress that with age fertility drops and their risk of complications, including stillbirths, increases.
Ms Burbidge is a partner Passion Capital, which funds tech start-ups, and is the Treasury’s special envoy for financial technology
Experts estimate women in their late forties have as little as a one in 20 chance of becoming pregnant because of their lower supply of eggs, which are less capable of being fertilised.
The British Fertility Society previously warned celebrities who have children in their 40s are giving women false hope about late motherhood.
Chairman Adam Balen said celebrities who paraded ‘miracle babies’ will often have used IVF or donor eggs, both of which can cost thousands of pounds.
Because they do not make this public, their fans fail to realise the fertility issues and health problems that may result.