THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080557
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
When Christine Tanana adds up all the battles she's fought, the tally goes something like this: three decades, two operations, three attempts at in-vitro fertilization, one Caesarean section, countless prayers.
The victory lay in her arms Thursday afternoon. Tenuous fingers clutched a baby bottle. A girl, Alexandra, conceived on Christine's final attempt to have a child, after almost 30 years of trying. Born just a few days after her mother's 50th birthday.
Tanana has set at least one record. She is the oldest mother to deliver a healthy child at Virginia Beach General Hospital. And she may be the oldest woman to do so in Hampton Roads.
``I can't believe she's mine,'' Tanana said, gazing at her daughter's sleepy face. This was a desire that - there's just no word for it.''
She is not the only Hampton Roads woman to conceive a child in her late 40s. Her doctor, fertility expert Jill Taylor Flood, has helped three patients give birth, to healthy babies, at age 49. Several others delivered at age 48 after being treated by Flood at the Beach Center for Infertility, IVF and Endocrinology.
Norfolk's Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, at Eastern Virginia Medical School, has had one patient deliver at age 52, but that woman was not a resident of Virginia, a school spokesman said. Numbers were not available for the oldest Jones patient to deliver in Hampton Roads.
When she came to Flood, Tanana was already in menopause, which means her body had used up all its eggs. She was given eggs from an anonymous donor. The staff at the Beach Center used a process called in-vitro fertilization, in which an egg is fertilized with sperm in the laboratory, then implanted in the uterus. The sperm was donated by a close friend of Tanana's.
Before the embryo was implanted, Tanana was given female hormones to stimulate her uterus to prepare for pregnancy. The uterus responds properly to the hormonal signals even after menopause, said Flood.
Tanana, who works as a nurse at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, tried the procedure twice, unsuccessfully. Each time, it cost her more than $4,000, and incalculable disappointment.
She decided to try it one last time. Her money and her emotional reserves were almost gone. ``I don't think mentally I could have taken'' another failure.
A few days before the final attempt, she prayed before sleep. She prays often, but that day, she says, she finally accepted that perhaps God never meant for her to have a child.
``All your life, you struggle and you want something and you hurt over it. And nobody can see all that, 'cause it's all going on inside. And finally I just let it all go.
``Not that it didn't matter. I was tired of fighting. I was at peace with it.''
The good news came over the telephone when she was at work. She shook.
Tanana first tried to have a child when she was about 21. She didn't succeed, but she didn't learn why until she was about 30. Her Fallopian tubes were blocked. She had two operations to correct the problem, but still could not get pregnant.
Tanana, who is divorced, thought about adopting a child, but somehow that didn't feel comfortable to her. She considered resigning herself to becoming active in the lives of other people's children, but other people's children reminded her painfully of her wish.
Because of her age, Tanana was considered a high-risk pregnancy and was closely watched by her doctor, Steven Warsof at the Tidewater Perinatal Center.
Alexandra was born by Caesarean section on March 4, a bit premature at 34 weeks but otherwise healthy.
She weighed 4 pounds, 6 ounces at birth. Her delicate head is still too small to fit properly in the tiny, hand-knit cap given to her by hospital volunteers, but she'll grow.
Everywhere she turned, Tanana said, she found help when she most needed it. Like from the people at work, who donated some of their leave to give her more time off. Or from the hospital, which gave her a free extra night so she could stay until her daughter was discharged.
She's also received more than her share of advice from people who don't approve of a woman giving birth at 50.
To those who asked, ``What do you want to have a baby for?'' She'd respond, ``Why did you have yours?''
Tanana, for her part, has no specific ambitions to impose on her daughter.
``I'll just raise her the best way I can. And hope she's happy. And hope she enjoys being here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
L. TODD SPENCER
Alexandra, born a little premature on Monday at 34 weeks, is a tad
small for her hand-knit cap. But she'll grow - and that's just the
beginning.
Christine Tanana, who tried for three decades to conceive, says:
``I'll just raise her the best way I can. And hope she's happy. And
hope she enjoys being here.''
KEYWORDS: IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION by CNB