Woman who lost child to brain tumour gives birth at age 57

CONCORD, N.H. – A New Hampshire woman who lost her 13-year-old daughter to a brain tumour in 2016 has now given birth to a son — at age 57.

Barbara Higgins also had a brain tumour of her own while trying to get pregnant and had it removed.

Higgins and her husband, Kenny Banzhoff, of Concord, have been grieving for their late daughter Molly.

In recent years, the couple, who also have an older daughter, thought about having another child. They found an in vitro fertilization clinic in Boston that worked with them.

Higgins gave birth to a healthy boy named Jack on Saturday. He weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces.

“Yes, I’m scared and I’m anxious, but I’m so excited," Higgins told the Concord Monitor for a story published Friday.

Higgins, an avid runner who has been a high school track coach, said she did weight training until the day she went into labour.

In addition to Higgins' struggles with her brain tumour, Banzhoff, 65, had been living with kidney disease and underwent a transplant.

According to Guinness World Records, the oldest woman to give birth was 66-year-old Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, who had twins in Spain in 2006.