Are you ever too old to have a baby?

JUNE Welch thought her neat 26-inch waist had thickened because of middle-age spread. Aged 48, it had been two years since her last period. "I actually thought I'm going to have to do some exercises to get rid of some of this weight," laughs June, of Dipton, near Stanley.

"I thought it was impossible to get pregnant because I'd been through the change, but it was Gordon (her husband) who said 'I think you'd better do a pregnancy test first'."

June had consigned herself to never having children after spending 26 years trying to conceive. She had gone through surgery to unblock a Fallopian tube, but still, a longed-for child never came.

Then, when she had effectively given up hope, the unexpected happened. The couple watched in amazement as a little blue line came into view on the pregnancy test confirming that June was expecting.

"I was just in total shock and thought it must be some mistake," she says. "Gordon was amazed. I'd had no morning sickness or anything."

June was actually five months pregnant by the time she discovered she was expecting and went on to have a beautiful boy, called Matthew, who's now a boisterous six-year-old.

Her story is all the more amazing because the couple conceived without the help of any fertility treatment. Although delighted, June never chose to wait until she was 48 before she became a mother. But she is one of a growing number of women who, according to the Office for National Statistics, are having babies later and later in life. They include Cherie Blair, who was 45 when her youngest son Leo was born in 2000, and actress Susan Sarandon who gave birth at 45. The number of women having babies in their 40s has nearly doubled in ten years. The number in their 30s is up by two thirds and now outstrips those in their 20s.

But there's a rather more disturbing trend emerging lately in the number of women choosing to have children in their sixties. Yesterday, a child psychiatrist from Lewes, in East Sussex, announced she is about to become Britain's oldest mum by giving birth at the age of 63. Dr Patricia Rashbrook, who already has two grown-up children with her first husband, is now seven months pregnant through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment with her second husband, John Farrant, 61. It is believed that Dr Rashbrook travelled to Italy for fertility treatment by the controversial doctor Severino Antinori.

The news comes after Romanian Adriana Iliescu last year became the world's oldest woman to give birth at the age of 66. Her daughter Eliza, conceived by artificial insemination, was born weighing 3lb 10oz, less than half the weight of an average newborn.

Yesterday's announcement has reopened the debate surrounding whether a woman should have children at such a late age. When her child is seven years old, Dr Rashbrook will be 70 and she'll be 80 - if she lives that long - when her son is in the final years of his A-levels. A considerable amount of energy is also needed to raise a child and while the albeit youthful looking Dr Rashbrook may be fit now, her health could deteriorate rapidly in the next two decades.

Some pro-life campaign groups have argued that they are simply producing a manufactured child which meets the demands of the parents.

There are also questions as to how safe it is for her to have a child in her sixties with the increased risks older mothers face of having babies with Down's Syndrome, or having a miscarriage or still birth.

But just how old is too old to become a mother?

According to one leading fertility expert, it's the mother's health, not so much her age, which needs to be taken into account. Professor Alison Murdoch, director of Newcastle's Fertility Centre at Life - which has an upper age limit of 45 - says doctors need to look at each case individually to determine any health risks. But for a healthy older woman, having a baby should be less risky than for a young woman with health problems.

"Health is more important than age in terms of the physical side of pregnancy," she says. "I am not going to say just because you are older you are not going to have a baby. But you have to take into account the welfare of the child. Someone who is older is less likely to be around in 20 years' time."

Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield, and a fertility expert, believes it is too risky for women to have children in their sixties.

''Older women are more likely to have hypertension in pregnancy, are more likely to get diabetes, are more likely to have problems with the placenta," he says. "My personal feeling is that nature designed us to have babies when we are in our late teens or early 20s, and we are bucking the trend anyway by waiting to our mid-30s to have children naturally.

''Having them in our 60s is probably going to the limit.''

According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), fertility treatment in Britain does not depend on age and whether a person is treated is left to the clinical judgement of doctors. But the law says that clinics must take into account the welfare of the child, including the health, age and ability to provide for the needs of the child of the parents.

June Welch, now 55, believes there should be tighter controls on the upper age limit for women seeking IVF treatment. She believes Dr Rashbrook has acted selfishly in her efforts to get pregnant.

"It's actually going against nature," she says. "I know what it's like when you are so desperate for children but I don't think it is fair on the child she's going to have. I think there has to be a cut off point for doctors so they can't get IVF treatment into their sixties.

"I've been lucky with Matthew, he's been a wonderful little boy, but I'm not sure I would have liked to have been older when I had him."

For many women who have children in their late 30s or 40s, there are considerable benefits to being an older mother. June believes she is a lot calmer and less stressed than when she was younger. Many women who have children later have had time to establish their careers, or feel they have had chance to live a little before they settle down and take on the responsibility of children.

But June also believes that having a child in your sixties is simply too old. Matthew has brought them such joy, but she concedes she does think about getting older and being around for her son.

"Sometimes I work out how old I'll be when he's 21 and I do worry, but then there's nothing you can do about it," she says. "You just have to make the most of what you've got - and we do."