Last week, the Japan Office of the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine announced that a 60-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to a healthy baby at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo. Though the woman's identity and the child's gender were not revealed, the mother released a statement through the Japanese representative of the center. The statement was notable more for its tone than its content; it read in part, "It is wrong if [a couple] cannot have a child simply because the woman is older."
The defensiveness was understandable and, considering the media response so far, prescient.
The statement marks the first time that a postmenopausal Japanese woman who has given birth has talked about her experience, a development that is significant in itself. Apparently, 43 other anonymous postmenopausal Japanese women have made use of the center's services, including two 56-year-olds and one 54-year-old who gave birth to twins.