62-year-old Redding woman gives birth to 12th child

SignOnSanDiego (Union Trubune online) ^ | February 17, 2006 | Staff/Assoicated Press

[Mrs. Don-o]

REDDING – A 62-year-old woman gave birth Friday to a healthy 6-pound, 9-ounce baby boy, becoming one of the oldest women in the world to successfully bear a child. The newborn is the 12th child of Janise Wulf, who's also a grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of three.

Wulf and her third husband, Scott, 48, named the red-haired boy, Adam Charles Wulf. He follows just 3½ years behind his older brother, Ian.

“I hate to raise one alone, without a sibling,” said Wulf, who was impregnated both times through in vitro fertilization.

Wulf has given birth to a total of 12 children, although one son died in his 30s and another died at birth with undeveloped lungs. Of her 10 living children, the oldest is 40.

“I think she's amazing. She's got more than enough love to give,” Myers said.

Wulf is used to defying the odds. Blind since birth, she was a synchronized swimmer in high school, worked as a piano and organ saleswoman and developed a passion for cooking.

Wulf said Friday that she considers her late-in-life pregnancy a groundbreaking act for older women.

“Age is a number. You're as old as you feel,” she said. “Every time you revolutionize something or you do something different, there's going to be naysayers.”

[jocon307]

"Neither does the Catholic Church since many embryo's/children are created and subsequently destroyed..."

But it's not just that, Coleus, it's that the Church does not approve of any "third parties" being involved in reproduction. They are so in favor of "nature" they could basically be hippies. But I'm not sure ALL fertility medical help would be off the table. I'm not sure about that at all.

Maybe someone else can give more info.

[leadpenny]

Hey, she's a leadpenny.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I honestly don't see how "self-fulfillment" works as a criticism for childbearing, anymore than you could criticize schoolteachers or physicians who chose their profession because they found it personally fulfilling.

Childbearing, like teaching and healing, is a vocation that inherently draws you OUT of yourself and orients you toward filling somebody else's needs and desires.

I am not denying that there is such a thing as blameworthy selfishness, and that someimes it can be expressed through your children (or through your church, or through your political party, your job, or any other way.)

I'm just saying that people who are able to have, raise, and provide for large families are, in the main, outstandingly generous, and are making a contribution that enriches everyone in this society and --- if they do it right --- enriches heaven, too.

[passionfruit]

I can't see bringing children into the world at such an advanced age that you probably won't live long enough to raise them.

[Ostlandr]

Hey, if her other children are healthy and happy, why not? My grandparents were healthy and vital into their 90s.
My mother's doctor is amazed by the fact that she's still menstruating and (theoretically) fertile in her 60s.
My wife's great-grandmother was married at 16, had her first child at 17, and her sixteenth at 48. 12 of them survived to adulthood. She lived to be 90.

With the above noted exception, both my and my wife's families (Northern Europeans all) tend to have small numbers of large, healthy children very late in life.
A generation in our families is 25 or 30 years rather than the accepted figure of 20. Long lifespans, long fertile periods, low fertility rates- I think we're decended from Elves.

[G.Mason]

This simply shows what can be accomplished by continual sensory deprivation over a period of time and a little medical intervention.

BTW ... for the fruitbats out here ... I wish this couple of putzes nothing, good or bad, just that they will now go away.

[LWalk18]

She has three great-grandchildren! Imagine being older than your great-uncle.

[California74]

Not to mention that this 62 yr old woman is also BLIND! Did y'all catch that?

"Wulf is used to defying the odds. Blind since birth, she was a synchronized swimmer in high school..."

[proud2beconservativeinNJ]

I know of a family that had 22 but it involved two sets of twins.

[JoeGar]

No big thing. According to Guinness' Book of World Records, a Russian woman gave birth to 69 children from 27 pregnancies. They were all multiple births: 16 twins, 7 triplets, 4 quads.

[edpc]

“I think she's amazing. She's got more than enough love to give,” Myers said.

An obvious statement, given the storyline.

[free_at_jsl.com]

Her husband is 48 and her oldest son is 40?

[TennesseeGirl]

"what diff does it make how she looks?"

Curiosity.

[luckystarmom]

There are a lot of risks involved with in-vitro, one of the main being multiples.

I had twins (by act of God) at 34, and know first hand the toll that a twin pregnancy.

I think it is horrible for the doctor to actually go through with in-vitro on a woman of this age due to the risks to both the mom and the future babies.

Anyway, I think it is tooo risky and doctors should not be doing this.

[edpc]

My wife's great-grandmother was married at 16, had her first child at 17, and her sixteenth at 48.

I think we're decended from Elves.

They must have lived in a very big tree.

[caryatid]

Her husband is 48 and her oldest son is 40?

She said she doesn't like to raise one without a sibling .... sounds like there are plenty of "siblings" for her "young" husband.

[Hildy]

And, she's BLIND!!! Unbelievable.

[nuconvert]

It's her 3rd husband

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The newborn is the 12th child of Janise Wulf, who's also a grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of three.

So, her newborn is what now? An uncle and great uncle already?

[Old Professer]

I don't care how many kids she has, but a blind cook is a hazard to the whole neighborhood.