BRITAIN’S oldest expectant mother answered her critics yesterday, saying that her IVF-induced pregnancy, though “potentially controversial”, had been planned responsibly.

Patricia Rashbrook, a consultant child psychiatrist, will be 63 when she gives birth. She is seven months pregnant after treatment by an Italian embryologist. Doctors and anti abortion groups have accused her of selfishness and expressed fear for the child’s long-term welfare, growing up with two parents already over 60.

Yesterday, Dr Rashbrook stepped out with her husband, John Farrant, 61, and said that she was “delighted with the pregnancy”. She is believed to be expecting a son. She said: “We are very happy to have given life to an already much loved baby and our wish now is to give him the peace and security he needs.”

When news of her pregnancy became public on Wednesday evening the couple hired a PR agency, which issued a statement saying: “This has not been an endeavour undertaken lightly or without great courage. A great deal of thought has been given to planning and providing for the child’s present and future wellbeing, medically, socially and materially.”

Dr Rashbrook married Mr Farrant, a historian and higher education consultant, after the death of her first husband, Brian, with whom she has a son aged 22 and a daughter aged 26. One of them is a doctor.

The couple moved into an elegant three-storey townhouse in Lewes, East Sussex. A friend has said that Dr Rashbrook wanted a child “to seal her love for John”. The couple contacted Severino Antinori, a fertility doctor who courted controversy in the early 1990s by helping a 62-year-old Italian woman to give birth through IVF treatment.

“The case of the English woman gave me great joy,” Dr Antinori said yesterday. “She came here with her husband. The couple love each other, she is slim, blonde, in perfect condition.” He said that Dr Rashbrook had a biological age of around 45. “She fits all the criteria for maternity.”

Neighbours and friends of Mr Farrant were staggered that the quiet academic, who has spent half a lifetime writing books on the history of Sussex, was now to be a father. “I’m just amazed,” Tim Locke, 47, a former neighbour told The Times. “I’m not sure how he will cope — it’s quite hard to imagine, although he’s quite lively and she is young for her age. I’m really pleased for them.”

Representatives from “pro-life” groups, however, condemned the pregnancy. Matthew O’Gorman, of Life, said that the child would be “without a mother or father at the most crucial moment of adolescence or when that child is growing into maturity”.

The British Fertility Society wished Dr Rashbrook well with her pregnancy but said that it had “serious concerns about the infertility treatment of women over 50, particularly of the increased risk to the mother and the welfare of the child that results”.

Even a relative offered criticism. Valerie Rashbrook, 63, a cousin-in-law of Dr Rashbrook, said: “I’m the same age as Patricia and when I look after my grandchildren I’m tired after ten minutes . . . I think she is mad and I think my views are the same as what everyone else is thinking.”

Yesterday the couple stepped out into the brilliant afternoon sunshine to face the cameras, looking happy if somewhat bemused. “We are thrilled,” Mr Farrant said.

Dr Rashbrook said: “We just want everyone to know that we take our responsibility for the child very seriously.” Had they thought of a name? She would not discuss the matter nor she would pose sideways for the cameras to display her swelling abdomen.

Eventually they turned into a twitten, one of the narrow lanes of Lewes, got into a car and sped away, pleading for privacy for their unborn child.

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