Unlikely mom

last updated 8 January 2015

New York

Three days shy of her 57th birthday, a New York woman this week became the oldest American ever to give birth to twins. Aleta St. James, a motivational speaker, said she had always wanted children, but her career kept her too busy. Three years ago she decided the time had come. She tried to get pregnant naturally, then underwent $25,000 worth of fertility treatments. Finally, she was successfully implanted with a donor egg fertilized by an ex-boyfriend. St. James, the sister of Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa, brushed aside the suggestion it was unwise to have children so late in life. “What you lack in energy,” she said, “you make up for in wisdom.”