It's time to stop this hypocrisy over older mums

Rather like X Factor surprise Susan Boyle, Elizabeth Adeney is currently experiencing her 15 minutes of fame as she becomes Britain's oldest mother at 66.

Having undergone IVF treatment using a donor egg, she is now eight months into her pregnancy.

Boyle was written off before she'd even opened her mouth for her looks and age.

There is clearly a huge amount of age-related prejudice against women and this is nowhere more apparent than in older mothers.

Certainly influenced by some crustier members of the medical establishment tut-tutting over the possible risks to mother and baby of conceiving later in life, public intolerance has increased and led to comments being posted on blogs that older mothers, such as Adeney, are "selfish", "irresponsible" and "harmful".

When men become fathers at a ripe old age they are congratulated and celebrated. The media rejoiced with David Jason when he became a father aged 61, and also with Gordon Brown at 54.

But recent research has shown that older fathers can be less tolerant of their children, seeing them as impulsive and overactive.

There is also a study reporting that the offspring of older fathers have a significantly increased risk of autism - six times higher than children of fathers under 30, while the mother's age did not affect autism risk. But none of this has stopped the laddish back-slapping.

Of course, there are risks associated with older pregnancies: mothers are more likely to get high blood pressure, diabetes and may more often require a Caesarean delivery.

But these are well anticipated and not unseen in younger women too. Provided she is carefully monitored during pregnancy, all should be well for Elizabeth Adeney.