On May 22, 2006, a 59-year-old American woman became the oldest woman to give birth to twins.
Three months away from turning 60 years old, Lauren Cohen gave birth to the best birthday gift she could ever receive, her twins named Giselle and Gregory.
“I don’t feel like a record holder,” Lauren told PEOPLE. “Except for arthritis, I’m in excellent shape.”
Lauren already had a daughter at this time, from an earlier marriage, a 27-year-old daughter, and she had gotten divorced from her last husband.
Then she met her future husband, Frank Garcia, at a local dancing class in 2002. He was roughly 20 years younger than her but it didn’t matter.
“I never thought he could be interested in a woman so much older. He was a great dancer so I asked him to dance one night and he said yes,” Lauren said.
They got married a few months later to spend the rest of their lives together.
But deep down, Lauren knew Frank wanted to raise a family with children of his own.
And she didn’t want to deprive him of this opportunity because she was an older woman.
“It scared me to think that Frank might end up looking after a woman in his 80s with nothing else in his life. And by then, he’d be too old to start again with someone else,” Lauren admitted.
So they decided to get pregnant via in vitro fertilization (IVF) through donor eggs.
It took them a long time to find a clinic that would accept them since she was past the maximum age allowed. But finally, they were accepted by a clinic in Virginia in January 2004.
But the process wasn’t easy. She went through four failed rounds of IVF.
Finally, a doctor in New Jersey agreed to help the couple.
“There were so many tests – I did everything from running on a treadmill to seeing a psychiatrist before they’d even attempt IVF. But since I was in good health, I eventually got the OK,” Lauren shared.
And because she had already gone through menopause, they could only do it through the help of donor eggs.
And in December 2004, they welcomed their first child together, Raquel.
And a couple of months later, they found out they were pregnant again. This time, they were having twins via IVF using donor eggs.
Lauren and Frank we ecstatic! They were hoping for one and they got three children instead.
But even though she was in excellent shape when she gave birth, Lauren is now on a new mission: to stay alive long enough to see her children off to college, 17 more years.
Besides staying fit with yoga and pilates, she is also drinking about a hundred supplements every week.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to live as long as I can,” Lauren declared. “I’ve set a target of seeing them through college. I’ve got to keep going for 17 years – until I’m 81.
And while she and Frank are thankful for the blessings that are their children, she doesn’t recommend getting pregnant at her age.
“I don’t think it’s right to have a baby when you’re close to 60 unless you’re in an unusual situation like mine where you have a younger spouse who you can feel fully confident will be an involved parent,” Lauren shared.
Would you like to see their children a little bit older now and how Lauren is coping with being an older mother? Watch the video below.
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