A mum who gave birth to her first child at 50 says she's constantly mistaken for her son's grandmother.
It took three rounds of IVF for Dawn Pullen-Lee, 52, from Treharris, South Wales, to fall pregnant with her miracle baby boy Llywelyn.
Dawn had always wanted to be a mum, but says she just hadn't found the right person to have children with.
But after meeting, falling in love and getting married to her wife, Rebecca, 38, Dawn knew she couldn't give up on her dream of carrying her own baby.
After spending all her life savings on three rounds of IVF treatments, Dawn finally fell pregnant using her wife's eggs in 2016.
And apart from little Llywelyn arriving three weeks early, the pregnancy went as smoothly as it could have done.
But, two years on, Dawn says she's fed up of strangers assuming she's Llywelyn'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?'
"Or sometimes strangers will randomly ask 'how often do you have your grandson at home?'
"I had always wanted children but I never met the right person.
"When I met my wife in 2013, who has three children, it became crystal clear to me 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.
"After my first treatment I was told that I had a less than 40 per cent chance of conceiving because of my age.
"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 partners 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."
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.
Dawn says she coped well with her pregnancy and would urge other women who want to become mums 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.
Source: Read Full Article