"Produce a baby, instead of raising a dog."
This was the call of psychologist Frieda Birnbaum, a 60-year-old American mom who gave birth Tuesday to a twin sons through a Cesarean section at Hackensack University Medical Center.
While most of the older folk prefer to raise dogs or adopt children, the mother of three just decided to become pregnant, instead. At least, it’s one best way of sacrificing one’s time to a fruitful endeavor than to take care of animals like dogs to erase boredom or loneliness at home.
Many would agree that a dog is a man’s best friend. But pragmatically, there’s nothing much better than rearing a human being, especially if he or she is your own. Just consider the amount of time and money that one will spend to keep the dog in tip-top shape. Why can’t one consider the idea of adopting or better yet to undergo the same risk Birnhaum did to have a baby? However, not many will be sold to the idea owing to some health risks involved in the process. It’s a matter of courage and determination to gamble on such an ordeal of carrying a child for at least nine months in the womb, especially if one is old enough and in frail health.
Widely publicized nationwide, Birnbaum is the first and oldest American woman to have given birth to twins, after she underwent an in-vitro fertilization last year at a South African clinic that specializes in older women.
Birnbaum said Thursday that she didn’t feel the trauma of being pregnant nor during the delivery. Married to New York City lawyer Ken, the couple has already three children–sons ages 33 and 6 and a daughter, 29.
Reports said the couple just wanted to have another child that is much closer in age to their youngest. Instead of adopting somebody, they just decided for her to become pregnant."I couldn’t be happier about the way it worked out," Ken Birnbaum told "Today."
The only thing that worries the daughter is how to take care of the twins, after their mom is past 70. "My daughter told me I was crazy," she told CNN.