A 56-year-old Grandmother in the US got the shock of her life when doctors told her she is pregnant.
What makes it even more surprising is that she may be carrying twins and the pregnancy was conceived naturally.
Sallie Brown says she conceived naturally. She wasn’t trying to get pregnant as she and her husband Charles figured she was well past her childbearing years, but she nonetheless considers her pregnancy a blessing from God.
Sallie had a baby girl when she was 15, long before she and Charles married; that baby was from a previous relationship.
She got pregnant once by Charles about a dozen years ago, but it was an ectopic pregnancy — one that occurs outside the womb — and she lost the baby. After that, she says, the couple resigned themselves to the probability they would never have a baby together.
Meanwhile, they took in and eventually adopted Sallie’s grandson, Henry, who is now 9. They later adopted two more children — Gabriel, now 14, and his sister Jecoliah, 7.
Her husband Charles, admits that he had been praying for his wife to get pregnant for years.
“I sure was,” he says with a grin. “I always wanted a kid by her, but I thought it was kind of scary, because I don’t want nothing to happen to her having a child. So I said, ‘Well, whatever the Lord gives me, I’ll accept it.’ So we’re just working at our jobs, and all of a sudden, boom! But we didn’t try to get pregnant — it just happened. I just said, ‘Wow, God is good.’”
Sallie’s projected due date is around late December, she says.
Sallie knows, however, that hers is a high-risk pregnancy because of her age. Some doctors use the term “geriatric pregnancy” for any expectant mother 35 or older, and she’s two decades older than that.
“A higher incidence of birth defects comes with (a geriatric pregnancy), regardless of how healthy the woman is,” says Dr. Curt Jacobs, a US obstetrician.
“The incidence of maternal and fetal complications goes up, such as ectopic pregnancy and congenital malformations,” Jacobs continues.
“The main issues for the woman are high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. … Mortality is an issue, too. Maternal mortality in the United States is quite low, but in women over 40, it’s fivefold higher — 46 per hundred thousand vs. nine per hundred thousand.”
Sallie says she knows the risks, but she’s trying not to worry too much.
“I’ve prayed about it, and I’m just looking to God to take care of me,” she says.
“I didn’t want to be all nervous and worried about it — I just feel that it’s going to be a successful pregnancy.”
The Browns say if they have a boy, they’ll name him Julius, after Sallie’s uncle who recently died. And if it’s a girl, they plan to name her Miracle — for obvious reasons.
Wow, is this not amazing?
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