CAROLE HORLOCK has contacted doctors to try to have a 14th surrogate baby at the age of 58, admitting “I’m broody”.
Carole, who also has two daughters of her own, is ready to risk her life after getting in touch with fertility experts in Greece and Cyprus.
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Doctors have previously warned that giving birth again could kill her, but she claims her body has never let her down.
In an exclusive interview she revealed: “I’m broody. Despite my age and giving birth to 15 babies — two of my own and 13 surrogate children — I still would love the feeling of growing one more baby inside of me and bringing life to this world.
“I have contacted fertility specialists in Europe including Greece and Cyprus as a lot of British couples fly there for IVF and they have good results.
“Right from the first child I gave away I didn’t feel any regrets.”
Carole, who is the Guinness World Record holder for having the most babies for other people, gave birth to her first surrogate baby — a boy — at home in 1995.
She went on to have twin girls for the same couple in February 1997 and they continue to have a close relationship to this day.
‘Confident I’m fit enough’
Carole, from Colchester, Essex, said: “While some embryos were implanted in me, meaning the baby wasn’t biologically mine, for many I used my own eggs.
“I don’t reveal which children are biologically connected to me or not as it’s the right of the parents to share that information with their child.
“It doesn’t worry me that my genetic offspring are being brought up by someone else as they were very wanted and are loved by them.
“I have always felt there’s one more baby left in me.”
Being the world’s most prolific surrogate, Carole revealed: “I get contacted by couples several times a year asking if I will carry their baby.
“I’ve not chosen one yet, as I want to get all the health checks first. But I’m confident I’m fit and well enough.
“If there’s a chance of getting pregnant and having a healthy baby to help someone who can’t have a family of their own, why wouldn’t I?”
However, this time, she will definitely use a donor egg.
She explained: “Because I’m older now, I’ll need some help with IVF and whatever I can as my eggs are too old to be viable so I’ll need to use donor eggs.”
But she admits she has been warned by doctors of the risk of haemorrhage due to her age and the extraordinary number of babies she has already given birth to.
She said: “The surgeons that did my last caesarean were surprised at how quickly my uterus shrunk back. It’s only when that doesn’t happen that you can get complications.
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“It’s normally around the fourth or fifth delivery that postpartum haemorrhage becomes a bigger risk. I’m way beyond those figures frankly. It’s never happened yet, and I don’t think it will.”
The only time her life as a surrogate didn’t go to plan was when Carole had her ninth baby in 2004.
Controversially, she unknowingly gave away her and her husband’s son.
Carole said: “Most of the babies were my eggs but the difference was, that while my husband Paul and I always used protection, something unexpected happened — I’ll never call it a mistake.
“As when the couple did a DNA test following his birth it turned out he was Paul’s.
SUBSTANTIAL RISKS
IT is possible for a woman to give birth at 58 but natural conception is extremely rare and most women of this age need IVF, often using donor eggs due to diminished ovarian reserve.
Multiple previous pregnancies, especially with multiple births and multiple caesareans, significantly increase risks such as uterine rupture, placenta previa, and haemorrhage.
Using donor eggs from a younger woman can reduce the risk of chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down’s syndrome.
But the risks of pregnancy complications – including gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, hypertension, and preterm birth – are significantly higher due to the mother’s age.
There are substantial risks. Older mothers also face a higher likelihood of requiring intensive care during or after delivery. The risks increase with each successive caesarean.
NHS fertility treatment is only offered to women aged under 43. Many UK specialists may be reluctant due to the high medical risks involved but age limits may be more flexible abroad.
Dr Sami Almusawa is a Fertility Consultant at planyourbaby.co.uk
“There was a lot of soul searching. In the end, we agreed they could keep him.
“But there was a huge public backlash. I think about him all the time. He’s 20 now. He’s free to contact me if he ever wants to. I hope he will one day.”
After that Paul, who is now 73, had a vasectomy so lightning couldn’t strike twice.
She went on to give birth to triplets, two girls and one boy, in 2008 using a new couple’s embryos, followed by a 13th baby in April 2013.
Carole said: “With that one, I had an emergency caesarean section and I was advised not to get pregnant again as there was a chance I might haemorrhage which could kill me.”
But she has kept going. Carole was last pregnant in her early fifties but the pregnancy failed as the embryo wasn’t viable.
But she was spurred back into action after being sent a video of one of Britain’s oldest mums Sandra Henderson, who gave birth at 59 in 2005.
The scars of being a mother are something to be proud of, not something to avoid.
Carole Horlock
Two others were older: Elizabeth Adeney of Cambridgeshire who gave birth aged 66 in 2009 and Dr Patricia Rashbrook of Lewes, East Sussex, who gave birth aged 62 in 2006.
She said: “If a British mum gave birth at 66, there’s still hope for me.”
Explaining why she would love to have another baby Carole said: “I love being pregnant, I love the feeling of a baby moving inside me.
“But, also, I love being involved in somebody’s dream coming true.
“With my last surrogacy I didn’t bond with the mum. I felt like a paid employee.
“That’s why I have wanted to do it again. It was devastating to have had three miscarriages since.” Carole has also slammed the celebrity culture of surrogate babies for convenience sake.
She said: “I would never name names, as for all we know they may have a secret medical condition, but I do feel motherhood is the greatest gift.
“Why would you pay someone to do something as important as having a child if you didn’t have to?
“The scars of being a mother are something to be proud of, not something to avoid.
‘My daughter is furious’
“So I do think surrogacy for convenience sake is wrong.”
When she told her daughters Megan, 31, and Stephanie, 34, they asked her not to do it.
She said: “Megan, my youngest, is furious. She is against it. But ultimately, she has grown up with me being a surrogate and she knows how much it means to me.”
And Carole said people’s perception has changed for the worse since she first did it.
She said: “Before people would say, ‘What an amazing thing to do’. Now it’s more a view of ‘Oh, you are selling your baby’. That is not what it is.
“Most men go, ‘S**t, I wish I had a womb’ when they hear there is up to £15,000 in expenses.
“But when you tell them about all of the hospital visits, scans, and checks — it’s a 24 hour job — as well as the inevitable toll on your body . . . you are not doing this for the money.
“My reply is, ‘Would you have a baby for £15,000?’
“All say an unequivocal ‘no’.”
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OLDEST MUM IN WORLD
THE record holder for the oldest ever mother is Erramatti Mangamma, who had IVF before giving birth to twin girls via a caesarean section in Hyderabad, India in 2019 at the age of 73.
According to Guinness World Records, the oldest mother to conceive naturally without fertility treatment is Dawn Brooke from Guernsey, who accidentally got pregnant when she managed to ovulate past her last period. Dawn was 59 when she gave birth to her son in 1997.
But it has also been reported that a 67-year-old retired doctor Tian reportedly gave birth in China in 2019 with husband Huang, having become pregnant naturally after taking herbal treatments for her health issues.
According to records, there was also Daljinder Kaur, 72, and dad Mohinder Singh Hill, 79, India, who had a son via IVF in 2016.
But mum Rajo Lohan, 70, who had daughter Naveen with dad Ballo Lohan, 71, almost died after giving birth in 2008.
In 2023, 70-year-old Safina Namukwaya had twins in Uganda, thanks to IVF.
Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, 66, gave birth to twin sons via IVF and artificial insemination in Spain in 2006.
And Annegret Raunigk, 65, from Germany, already a mother of 13, gave birth to quadruplets in 2015 via IVF after conceiving her 13th daughter naturally at the age of 55.