Parenting

50-year-old woman gives birth to first child: ‘We wouldn’t give up’

Susie Troxler always wanted to be a mother. Now, at the age of 50, she is. 

Troxler gave birth to her first child, Lily, on Sept. 29 at Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

“It was so surreal,” Troxler said in a press release from the hospital. “Everything had come together for that moment to happen. It’s hard to wrap our heads around. We’re no longer just husband and wife, we’re ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy.’”

Troxler and her husband Tony, 61, were married in 2008 and tried multiple times to have children at first, naturally. Then, about two years ago, she started in-vitro fertilization treatment and later, egg donation, FOX Television Stations reported. 

After Troxler had an unsuccessful initial attempt at pregnancy with the first embryo from the egg donation process, the coronavirus pandemic hit and many fertility clinics temporarily closed. 

Troxler was able to try for pregnancy again with a second embryo when the Carolinas Fertility Institute reopened earlier this year, according to FOX. 

Susie Troxler said she had “a really blessed pregnancy” despite being at high risk because of her age. Susie Troxler

“So Feb. 1, we had our embryo transfer of the last and final embryo, and here she [Lily] is,” Troxler told FOX. “That was the journey.”

Troxler told the station that she had “a really blessed pregnancy” despite being at high risk because of her age. 

According to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “Women who get pregnant later in life have a higher risk of complications” including preeclampsia and other health effects, both of the mother and the fetus. 

“We knew we were going to be parents one day,” Susie Troxler said. “It was just a given.” Susie Troxler

However, despite those risks, Troxler was determined to have children.

“I knew I was going to be a mom one day,” she told FOX. “Didn’t know how it was going to happen. Didn’t know whether it was going to be natural means, IVF means, whether it was going to be adoption. We had no idea what it was going to be.”

“But we knew we were going to be parents one day,” she continued. “It was just a given.”

“We wouldn’t give up,” Tony added in the press release. “We had that faith. We dreamed of her. We knew no matter how it was going to happen, that it was going to happen.”

Now that she’s given birth, Troxler said she and Tony are “just honored” to be Lily’s parents. 

“Medically, this was impossible, but she’s here,” Troxler said in the release. 

“It was so surreal,” Troxler said in a press release from the hospital. “Everything had come together for that moment to happen. It’s hard to wrap our heads around. We’re no longer just husband and wife, we’re ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy.’” Susie Troxler