A woman who became a mother for the first time at 50 using her 36-year-old wife’s eggs says she’s tired of being mistaken for her being her young son’s grandma.
Dawn Pullen-Lee, now 52, from Treharris, South Wales, gave birth to miracle baby Llywelyn after three rounds of IVF – using her life savings to pay for them.
Determined to become a mum with wife Rebecca, who already has three children, Pullen-Lee finally fell pregnant in 2016, giving birth to Llywelyn three weeks early.
Dawn Pullen-Lee, 52, from Treharris, South Wales, says she wanted children but ‘never met the right person’. When she married Rebecca, spending time with her wife’s three children made her realise that she too really wanted a baby
Pullen-Lee used Rebecca’s eggs with donor sperm to create embryos after her own weren’t considered viable. After three rounds of IVF, the couple finally conceived
Miracle boy: The mother-of-one says the couple’s third attempt to have a baby was their last try and they were lucky it worked
Dawn and Rebecca Pullen-Lee with their son; the civil servant says she finds it rude that people assume she’s the granny when the family are out together
However, two years on, Dawn says she’s fed up of strangers assuming she’s Lllywelyn’s grandma due to her age. Dawn, a civil servant said: ‘People on the street look at me sometimes and ask “are you his nan?”‘
She says that sometimes strangers will feel they can randomly ask her: ‘how often do you have your grandson at home?’
Her decision to become a mother cam late, she says because she’d never met the right person despite always wanting to have kids of her own.
She explains: ‘When I met my wife in 2013, who has three children, it made it crystal clear that I wanted one of my own.
‘We agreed to try IVF by using my own eggs but because I’m at a certain age they weren’t good enough.
At 50, Pullen-Lee says she was ‘the oldest mum in the hospital’ and endured a risky pregnancy because of her age
‘After my first treatment I was told that I had less than 40 per cent chances of conceiving because of my age.
I was the oldest mum at the hospital. Doctors were concerned because there was a higher risk that the baby could have Down’s Syndrome…
‘What we did then was to get 30 eggs from my wife that were fertilised in the lab and the third attempt worked.
‘It’s amazing because part of the baby is genetically my partner’s too. Because I was 50-years-old the hospital was concerned during pregnancy and there was higher risk that it could have Down’s Syndrome or would be disabled.
‘I was the oldest mum at the hospital. I wanted to give it a go and it was our last try because we had spent all our savings on it. I was lucky that it worked.’
Lllywelyn was born healthy in 2016 although he contracted meningitis and sepsis just two weeks later; Pullen-Lee says she suffered age discrimination when hospital staff questioned whether she was actually his mother
Dawn had to give birth with a C-section in March 2017 and little Llywelyn was born three weeks early.
Two weeks later he got sick with meningitis and sepsis so Dawn took him straight to the hospital, where she says she faced age discrimination.
She added: ‘We took him to the hospital with meningitis and sepsis.
‘I was treated a bit suspiciously, I turned up with the baby, he wasn’t well and the nurse asked me ‘are you sure you are the mum of this baby?’
‘I said ‘yes’ and then they said, ‘are you sure you gave birth to this baby?’
‘I was shocked, it was the only time I had a negative experience in the hospital.’
Apart from that incident, Dawn says she has never heard any negative comments just surprised and she feels very lucky she got pregnant at her age.
Now, the 52-year-old says she’d encourage older women to think about trying to conceive
Rebecca, Pullen-Lee’s wife, pictured with the couple’s son as a young baby
Dawn says she coped well with her pregnancy and would urge other women who want to become mum’s at a later age to go ahead.
She said: ‘I didn’t find it hard at all, I was a bit stressed because I thought I missed my chance when I reached 50.
‘IVF was hard and emotional but the rest was a breeze in comparison.
‘My pregnancy was great, all I had was a bit of indigestion but that’s normal.
‘I have had blood clots since I was 40 so it was dangerous for me to get pregnant in the first place but I’m so thankful I took that risk.
‘When I went to the IVF clinic I saw they didn’t have statistics for women over 45 as so rare to get pregnant over that age. I’m so lucky.’
WOMEN WHO HAVE BECOME MOTHERS OVER THE AGE OF 50
Daljinder Kaur, 73, and Mohinder Singh Gill, 80, had their first child Armaan with the help of IVF after trying for years to have a baby of their own
Elizabeth Adeney, of Suffolk, was Britain’s oldest mum at 66 when she gave birth to a son in 2009 following IVF treatment in Ukraine.
The oldest first-time British IVF mother is believed to be Sue Tollefsen, from Harold Wood, Essex, who in 2008 gave birth at 57 to daughter Freya after treatment in Moscow.
The cut-off limit for IVF treatment on the NHS is 42 and most private clinics in the UK refuse to treat women over 50, prompting older women to travel abroad for treatment. Another option apart from using frozen eggs is adoption.
Daljinder Kaur, 73, from Amritsar, in Punjab, northern India, delivered her first child Armaan in April 2016 by IVF. Her husband of 46 years, Mohinder Singh Gill, 80, agreed to have treatment following several failed attempts at having their own child.
Annegret Raunigk is the oldest woman, at age 65, to give birth to quadruplets. She was refused IVF treatment in Germany but a doctor in Ukraine agreed to artificially inseminate her. She already had 13 children to five different fathers.
Indian mother Memnune Tiryaki was, 62, when she delivered her child. She had been trying to have a baby for 35 years. Thanks to modern medicine she was able to give birth as a pensioner.
Dawn Brooke is officially registered in the Guinness World Record Book as the oldest mother who naturally delivered a baby after conceiving her child naturally at the age of 59.
Hollywood star Brigitte Nielsen, 55, most recently became a mother again at 54, after freezing her eggs to have her own genetic baby. The actress – who recently turned 55 – had IVF (in vitro fertilisation treatment) and gave birth to fifth child Frida.