More women aged 50 and older in Singapore having babies
Veteran actress and getai singer Liu Lingling with her son Caleb, whom she gave birth to in 2013 at the age of 50. PHOTO: ST FILE
Judith Tan
Correspondent
UPDATED
SEP 19, 2024, 07:08 AM
SINGAPORE – The boundary of motherhood has shifted over the past few years as more women aged 50 and above are having babies.
In 2023, 19 women aged 50 or older gave birth, three of whom were at least 55 years old then, according to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s annual report.
Between 1989 and 2009, six women aged 50 or older had babies. This number increased more than five times between 2010 and 2019, with 33 such women giving birth to 41 babies.
Among the 33 women was a 58-year-old who had twins in 2016. She is believed to be Singapore’s oldest woman to give birth.
The most well-known woman in Singapore to have a baby at the age of 50 or older is veteran actress and getai singer Liu Lingling.
She underwent in-vitro fertilisation treatment and gave birth to her son Caleb in 2013 at the age of 50.
Other celebrities who had babies after turning 50 include singer Janet Jackson, who was 50 when she had her son Eissa in January 2017; model Naomi Campbell, who was 53 when she had her son in June 2023; and actress Cameron Diaz, who was 51 when she welcomed her second child, a boy named Cardinal, in March 2024.
