Britain’s oldest mother of triplets has given birth to three healthy babies at the age of 55.
At a certain period of life, every person starts thinking about becoming a parent. Some people decide to have a baby at a young age, while others find it better to have kids at an older age, when you already have enough life experience, career. Mom Sharon already has four older children, but she decided to get pregnant and have more babies with Stuart, whom she met at the dating site. Britain’s oldest mum of triplets gave herself Botox injections before going into labor – to look at her best after the birth. Sharon, who is a nurse, revealed: “I’ve been trained by a doctor to administer Botox. I gave myself a dose while I was staying in the maternity ward for 11 weeks. “I only injected a little bit, because really you shouldn’t do it while you’re pregnant. “I sneaked out to get my hair extensions changed too. It was important to me to look my best for when the babies were born.”
Thrilled Sharon and boyfriend Stuart Reynolds, who is 15 years her junior, have been celebrating the birth of sons Mason and Ryan, and daughter Lily. She had spent £15,000 of loans on IVF to have a child with factory worker Stuart – who she met on a dating website. Sharon, who already had four grown-up children, said: “I knew there was a possibility of multiple births because the doctor put four embryos in me, for a higher chance of conceiving. “At the scan we were told there were three heartbeats. Stuart was shocked and I was in tears, crying with joy. “The first thing I thought was: ‘Oh my God, how am I going to cope?” Stuart said: “I was excited, and then bricked it. Now they’re here I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
The couple, from Boston Lincs, brought the babies home last week following their births on March 21. They now face carrying out 24 feeds and 21 nappy changes a day. The pregnancy was fraught with problems and Sharon had to spend 11 weeks in hospital to ensure the babies were delivered safely. At one stage doctors advised her to consider aborting one of the babies due to the dangers of pregnancy at her age. But she refused and the triplets were born by C-section at Nottingham University Hospital. They each weighed between 4lbs and 5lbs. Stuart admitted: “It was the most incredible and terrifying time of my life.”
When the couple met four years ago, childless Stuart wanted to start a family. But Sharon had started the menopause. Her only option was IVF, where an egg is removed from another woman’s ovaries and fertilised with Stuart’s sperm in a lab. Sharon, who is still married but separated from her husband of 24 years, said: “We got another loan out for £5,000 to try IVF again. “We focused on Cyprus as they do IVF on people up to the age of 60. “We chose an anonymous donor in July 2015 – we picked because of her likeness to me from the description.” Stuart said: “When they said they were going to put four embryos in I thought: ‘hang on, that sounds like a lot.’ “They said the number would make it more likely to work, so we agreed.” Incredibly, three embryos survived.
After an overnight stay at the city’s Jessop Hospital she was moved to Nottingham, where she stayed until the birth. Sharon, who already had Emma, 26, Sam, 23, Charles, 21, and Amy, 19, and four grandkids ad- mitted the prospect of the tots had drawn a mixed response from her family. She said: “One of my sons said I was too old and that I’d get fat. And my mum, Pauline, who is 74, thought I was far too ancient to get pregnant. “My daughters have come to see their new siblings and are over the moon. “My granddaughter Elizabeth understood I was pregnant, but is too young to realise it was with her aunt and uncles. “I don’t care that my babies are younger than my grandchildren – it means they’ve got lots of playmates.”
The couple do not worry about the price of bringing up triplets on top of the cost of the loans. Sharon, a staff nurse at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, insisted: “We both have good, well-paid jobs and work hard, so plan to have the loans paid off in the next couple of years. “I need to be fit and stay as well as I can, which I will. I spent 11 years in the Navy and ran four marathons. I know how to look after myself.
