CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire woman who lost her 13-year-old daughter to a brain tumor in 2016 has given birth to a son — at age 57.
Barbara Higgins holds her newborn son on March 24. Geoff Forester/The Concord Monitor via Associated Press
Barbara Higgins and her husband, Kenny Banzhoff, of Concord, have been dealing with grief over the death of their daughter, Molly.
In recent years, the couple, who have an older daughter, thought about having another child. They found an in vitro fertilization clinic in Boston that worked with them.
Higgins gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Jack on Saturday. He weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces.
“Yes, I’m scared and I’m anxious, but I’m so excited,” Higgins told the Concord Monitor in a story published Friday.
Higgins, an avid runner who’s been a high school track coach, said she did weight training until the day she went into labor.
While trying to get pregnant, doctors discovered Higgins had a brain tumor of her own, which has since been removed. Banzhoff, 65, got a kidney transplant after suffering from kidney disease.
In the last decade, the oldest woman in New Hampshire to give natural childbirth was 55, according to state vital records.
“I won’t be the only grandparent in the kindergarten line, but I will be the only one who had their own baby,” Higgins said.
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