Even though this blog is about older adoptive parents, there's no way I can let the story of the 60-year-old woman who gave birth to twins pass without a glance.

(Just for the record, Frieda Birnbaum is not the oldest woman to have twins. That title goes to Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, a Spanish woman who was seven days away from her 67th birthday when she gave birth to two boys in 2006.)

Talk on the groups and forums has been hot and heavy over these recent births, of course, with opinions varying from "So what?" to "How dare she?" and everything in between.

Boards that cater to us geezers, like GAARP are especially active as people debate the merits or demerits of all aspects of the Birnbaum's situation.

As everyone knows by now, she was considered too old to have the in vitro fertilization done in the US, so she went to South Africa for the procedure. For all we know, she may have gone more than once and had many treatments before these babies began to grow. No doubt the cost was in the thousands of dollars.

We know for sure this wasn't the first time, as the couple has a six-year-old son also conceived through IVF, she must have been fifty-three or so at the time, and they apparently decided a pal close to his own age would be a welcome addition since this little boy's siblings are 29- and 33-years-old.

People are suggesting that so much money could have been better spent, that with so many children needing families making them from scratch -- especially when it entails so much money and science -- is irresponsible, that selfishness must be the motivation, that the children are bound to suffer for being born to such old parents, and so on.

Many are placing themselves in the Birnbaum's corner, saying that the family's business is theirs alone and that no one has a right to judge, while others agree heartily, but have concerns.

Personally, I'm not big on jumping into media frays, as I know better than to trust the pap that often issues from the spout. In this case, however, it was words from the new mother's mouth that formed the closest I'm going to bother to an opinion.

"Don't get a dog," she said at the end of a piece I saw on CNN, "get a baby."

Yikes! (And how long to you think it took me to process the thought, "Thank goodness she didn't adopt those children? Someone would be having a field day!")

Being that those 'words of wisdom' issued from a face that had very obviously had quite a bit of work done to it, allowing it to be just that much more dewy fresh and youthful ... in that typical pulled and slightly fish-like way ... did prompt me to wonder what sort of relationship Frieda Birnbaum has with sixty.

Thoughts, anyone?

For more on older parenting from an adoptive POV, here's the forum and here are a couple of links to information.