HER bump is neat and perfectly round and like any excited mum-to-be, Juliet Le Page is counting the months to the arrival of her second child.
But hers will be an extra-special delivery – for her baby is due the day after her 50th birthday.
"That's right," she says with a broad smile, "my birthday is on November 18th and the baby is due on the 19th. So if it all goes according to plan, I'll be 50 when the baby comes along."
Juliet nudges aside a clothes horse heaving with freshly-laundered towelling nappies, gently tugs at the waistband of her maternity jeans and settles into a chair in the conservatory of her Inverleith Place garden flat. By the door are three pairs of well worn shoes: her trainers, her husband Richard's gardening shoes and a dinky pair of size four wellies.
They belong to her first child Rafe, two last month, born when Juliet was 47 years old and already showing signs of the menopause.
A couple of years on from his arrival, while most 49-year-old women expect their child-rearing days to be giving way to becoming a grandparent, Juliet is preparing to rummage under the bed for Rafe's old pram and baby clothes, ready for arrival number two.
She may not quite be in the same league as the world's oldest mum – an Indian woman was revealed at the weekend to have become mum to IVF twins at 72 – but Juliet could be about to claim the title of Edinburgh's oldest new mother.
"People ask me if I'm really happy to be 49 and pregnant and I tell them that of course I am, but if I had the choice I would be pregnant and in my thirties," she shrugs. "Unfortunately I just was not lucky enough to meet the right person until later.
"I do think I'm probably in a better position emotionally and psychologically now, but who knows? If I'd had a child in my 30s then I might well have turned out to be a bad mother."
Not that she necessarily looks her age. Her face is clear of makeup, her skin lined with only a few light wrinkles and her short ash blonde hair is scrapped back from her face courtesy of a pair of spectacles. Only her hands, dabbled with brown age spots, provide a slight clue to her passing years.
Certainly no-one is more aware than Juliet that, at 50, she will almost certainly be the oldest mum in the school playground.
"Of course it crosses my mind that when this baby is 20 then I'll be 70, will I ever get to see him or her get married and have children," she nods. "That's when I do my rational thinking and tell myself that you don't know what is around the corner so just get on with it. It's ridiculous to think like that, there are too many 'what ifs', so I just get on with life and take it day by day."
Modern fertility treatment, two rounds of egg donation, a trip to a Barcelona fertility clinic and £13,000 have brought her dream to life – not that she planned it that way. There was a time she never considered herself "mum" material.
That, plus the demands of a career and a couple of lengthy but failed relationships, meant her biological clock didn't start to tick until it was almost too late . . .
"I had no interest in having children at all," she admits. "I got married but children were never talked about. The marriage broke down, I went on to qualify as a physiotherapist and children weren't an issue."
Originally from Yorkshire, Juliet arrived in Edinburgh in 1989 when she was 30. It wasn't until she met her husband-to-be, Richard, at a law firm where they were both working in 2001 that the notion of having children suddenly crossed her mind.
"I remember meeting him and thinking 'oh wow, it would be lovely to have a baby with him'," she laughs. "That was the first time I had ever thought like that."
It was almost a year before they became a couple but Juliet had already realised that if she wanted to become a mother, time was already running out.
"I was 43, I knew I wanted to marry this bloke and have his child but time wasn't on my side," she admits. "We'd only been together six months when I broached the subject and he was very gallant and agreed to come to the doctor to find out what the chances were."
Tests revealed that Juliet was already pre-menopausal – her chances of a natural conception were almost impossible. Not to be outdone, she researched her options. "I took a hard-nosed approach," she grins. "My GP said IVF wasn't an option because of the low quality of my eggs, so we decided to look at egg donation." It's a trap which catches out many couples who drift into middle age thinking if they struggle to have a baby they can always fall back on IVF, warns Juliet, who drew on her own experiences, and is now a fertility adviser.
The couple were warned they were unlikely to meet requirements for treatment at the ERI's Assisted Conception Unit – but even then Juliet decided she wouldn't be stopped. "I said 'if I bring you two egg donors, will you take me?', and, incredibly, the sister in charge said yes."
Juliet advertised in papers and on websites for egg donors – in the end she received 20 replies, three of whom turned out to be suitable potential donors.
Her hopes were raised and dashed several times – one potential donor suffered an adverse reaction to drugs required to stimulate egg production, the other was struck down by mumps – until finally, in September 2005, doctors said she was pregnant.
Richard, an investment manager, admits he had early concerns about the process. "There were times when I struggled a bit with it all because you are thinking that ideally the baby would be part of Juliet," he says. "But she has been so positive and determined."
Rafe was just a year old when the couple decided to try for their second baby. "I balanced it up because Richard is nine years younger than me – he's 40 – so age isn't as big an issue for him as for me," she admits.
Juliet's age meant they couldn't have the egg donor treatment in Edinburgh, so they headed to Barcelona, where the procedure was carried out in early March.
"I've been incredibly lucky," admits Juliet. "I've fallen pregnant at both attempts – that doesn't happen for everyone. Some go through it time and again and still don't have a child."
Juliet now runs Fertility Concerns, offering advice and help for couples and singles struggling to conceive. "People put off having a family for all kinds of reasons – their career, financial or like me, they haven't met the right person," she explains. "They might think they are healthy, but they might not be in terms of fertility.
"If I had any advice, I'd tell them not to leave having a baby until they are in their 40s," she says, hands folded over her bump.
"Look at how healthy you are well before you get to 35 – that way if there are problems you can work towards having them resolved. Just don't leave it too late."
THE 40-PLUS CLUBIT'S one of the fastest growing areas of childbirth – the older mum.
From Hollywood actresses to politicians' wives, having a child in later life has almost become the norm: Nicole Kidman has become the most recent star mum to join the 40-plus club – her daughter Sunday was born at the weekend. She follows the likes of Madonna, 41 when she had her second child; Cherie Blair, 45 when she had son Leo; Thelma and Louise stars Geena Davis and Susan Saradon – both 46 when they had their children – and Holly Hunter, who had twins at 47.
Although it is theoretically possible for a woman to conceive naturally right up until her last period – around 51 – many women are technically infertile from their late-thirties onwards.
Just 45 per cent of people who undergo fertility treatment manage to have a baby and women over 40 have a less than ten per cent chance. There are only 38 live births in Scotland a year as a result of egg donation.
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Juliet Le Page and a group of fertility experts will mark National Fertility Day with a special seminar next Tuesday. Go to www.fertilityconcerns.co.uk. The full article contains 1472 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
