Is Giving Birth At 50 Safe? Sen. Tammy Duckworth Pregnant At 49

Tammy Duckworth will soon become the first senator to give birth while in office. Duckworth said Tuesday her second child is due in April, shortly after she turns 50.

“Northwestern Medicine Fertility strikes again,” Duckworth told the Chicago Tribune. The Iraq war veteran earlier spoke about using assisted reproductive technology that helped her conceive her first child. Duckworth and her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, have a daughter, Abigail O'kalani Bowlsbey. Duckworth was serving in the House of Representatives when she gave birth to her daughter in 2014.

“It’s a terrible thing, but I’m listed as a geriatric mother,” she said. “It’s called a geriatric pregnancy on all of my medical charts. I don’t let that bother me though. I think 50-year-old moms are the new 40-year-old moms,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

Duckworth told the Chicago Sun Times she faced lot of problems in conceiving again. Her first child was born through fertility treatment. The Iraq war veteran also said she suffered a miscarriage during her successful Senate race in 2016.

"I've had multiple IVF cycles and a miscarriage trying to conceive again, so we're very grateful," she said.

Healthfully described geriatric pregnancy as pregnancy above the age of 35. The ability to conceive reduces with age and fertility treatments that aid the process also become less effective as the person becomes older. However, since some view the term geriatric pregnancy as slightly offensive, it is now referred to as advanced maternal age.

According to BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the risks of advanced maternal age during pregnancy include premature birth, low birth weight in baby, stillbirth, chromosomal problems in the baby, complications during labor, cesarean section, high blood pressure in mother and gestational diabetes.

Duckworth is a retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel. She was the first disabled woman to serve in the Senate. She lost both her legs during the Iraq War in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was flying. Prior to her stint in the Senate, she represented Illinois’ 8th Congressional District in the House for two terms.

So far, only nine other women have had babies while serving in the Congress and all of them were members of the House, not the Senate. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was the first woman to become a mother while sitting in the House. She gave birth to a girl child in 1973. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers holds the record of having the most number of babies while in office — she had three kids since she was elected to the Congress in 2004.

“I feel great,” Duckworth said. “I was just able to go on a congressional delegation to Korea and Japan. I went up to the (Demilitarized Zone) and had lots of good meetings about the threat of war with North Korea and came home to a major policy speech at Georgetown (University) on North Korea and nuclearization and went right into this (government) shutdown fight.”

“You’ve got to keep working. But I’m healthy. I’m well-monitored, and the doctors say I’m doing just fine,” she added.

Speaking about being the first woman to become a mom while serving in the Senate, she said, “Well, it’s about damn time. I can’t believe it took until 2018. It says something about the inequality of representation that exists in our country.”

“Men have been having children while they’ve been in office,” she said. “I hope if anything comes out of the Women’s March, it’s that we get more and more women running for office. It would be good to have some company here.”