Mother of twins, 60, says she did it for women

A PSYCHOLOGIST in Hackensack, New Jersey who gave birth to twin boys at age 60 said yesterday she was on a mission to let women know they have choices.

“It’s really about women and empowerment,” Frieda Birnbaum told NBC’s Today show in the US.

Birnbaum, who underwent in-vitro fertilisation last year at a South African clinic that specialises in older women, gave birth by Caesarean section on Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Centre.

“I don’t feel like I went through a lot of trauma during delivery or even through the process of being pregnant,” Birnbaum said.

The hospital said she was the nation’s oldest mother of twins.

“Age has been redefined,” Birnbaum said.

She and her husband, Ken, a New York City attorney, have been married for 38 years and have three other children — sons ages 33 and 6 and daughter, 29.

The couple wanted another child closer in age to their youngest son and Birnbaum’s husband said it was his idea for his wife to become pregnant instead of adopting.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Ken Birnbaum told Today.

Their daughter has said she worries about Birnbaum taking care of the twins when they’re in their teens and she’s in her late 70s. Concerns dismissed by Birnbaum.