BRITAIN’s oldest pregnant woman, 62-year-old Patricia Rashbrook, is expected to give birth to her baby, believed to be a son, within the next 10 days.

The baby is to be delivered by caesarean section in an operation never before performed on such an elderly woman.

It will take place at Brighton general hospital under the leadership of Julia Montgomery, a consultant gynaecologist.

The delivery is expected before the weekend, two weeks before she was due to go into natural labour, according to sources.

The controversial pregnancy sparked debate about the ethics of women becoming mothers so late in life when it came to light in May.

Last year, Adriana Iliescu, a retired university professor in Romania, became the world’s oldest mother at the age of 66.

Rashbrook, a consultant child psychiatrist from Lewes, East Sussex, has three adult children from her first marriage, but was anxious to have a child with her second husband John Farrant, 60, who has no children of his own.

They were turned away by British IVF clinics, but went to Rome where the controversial specialist Severino Antinori, agreed to treat them, despite the fact that providing IVF treatment to such an old patient would be illegal in Italy.

Antinori, who has also helped a 62-year-old Italian woman become pregnant, is planning a press conference to explain his role in Rashbrook’s case. He arranged for the couple to be referred to a Moscow clinic that buys eggs from impoverished donors and supplies them to women who can afford to buy them.

Some 20 donor eggs were fertilised with Farrant’s sperm and the couple went to Moscow four times for treatment.

It is understood they will receive a six-figure sum from a tabloid newspaper that has bought the rights to pictures of their new-born baby.

Rashbrook, who will be 63 in September, has defended her decision. Despite the fact she will be 80 before her child leaves school, she has said: “I believe it is quality of parenting that matters, not the age — and the ability of the parents to meet the child’s emotional, physical and social needs.”

Her children from her first marriage, Caroline, 26, who is a junior doctor in Eastbourne; William, 22, a university student; and Charles, 17, only discovered their mother’s plans when she was already pregnant. They are understood to be supportive.

Although a successful delivery would be a triumph for the doctors involved, it is not without risk. The weakening muscles of a post-menopausal woman, can bring a substantial risk of severe bleeding after the baby is delivered.

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