In the UK, a surrogate mother looks forward to giving birth to her 16th baby.
Carole Horlock, 52, Britain’s most fertile surrogate mother is determined to have her 16th baby before she turns 53.
Horlock is now searching for a couple or a single woman who needs her help and is aiming to get pregnant this year.
“I’m determined to get pregnant one last time with a surrogate baby and I’m actively searching for a couple or single mother to help,” Horlock told DailyMail. “Yes, age is against me, but I’m still fertile and capable of carrying a baby as my body is still like clockwork.”
Horlock is hoping to give birth before her 53rd birthday making her the world’s oldest commercial surrogate.
The prolific mother is set to get married to her partner, Paul, in June, which means she will probably be pregnant on her wedding day.
“At first Paul wasn’t at all thrilled at the idea of me carrying another baby, but he agreed after I told him it was something I really wanted to do,” she explained. “It would be a bit awkward if I was nine months pregnant walking up the aisle. But we’ll work with it if that happens.”
Horlock has given birth to 13 other children, including a pair of twins and a set of triplets and has two daughters of her own – Steffanie,28, and Megan, 24.
Horlock has helped eight couples to become parents, having her first surrogate baby at 27 and her 15th baby born in April 2013 but she has since had a miscarriage when another attempt failed.
She said that she enjoys feeling the babies kick but says she doesn’t bond with the children.
“I’m just a carrier of the baby, I leave it up to them if they want to stay in contact with me and some have become good friends and some of them haven’t,” she said. “Some don’t want to be constantly reminded they had a child through surrogacy.”
Megan, Horlock’s own youngest daughter, has stated that she is “furious” about her mother’s decision to get pregnant again, as she is worried about the health consequences of another pregnancy.
James Munby, head of the family court in the UK, has called for the lift on surrogates being paid. As of this writing, they are only allowed to claim ‘expenses’ of up to £15,000 or approximately $20,000.
The oldest known surrogate mother is Anastassia Ontou, from Greece, who was 67 when she gave birth to her 43-year-old daughter Constantina’s baby girl in 2016.