Successful pregnancy at age 50/51?

[Wexflyer]

I have a candidate mother in one of my lines, who fits perfectly in multiple ways. However, there is also an issue: she would have been 50/51 years old when she had her last child (in 1821).  Looking around on the internet, I see that this is highly unlikely, but not impossible. I can't find concrete numbers on just how likely/unlikely, so I wonder, has anyone else encountered an actual case of a successful pregnancy with a mother aged 50/51?
Thanks!

[Jebber]

It was not uncommon for a women to pass off the illegitimate child of an unmarried daughter as her own. Have you considered that possibility?

[Wexflyer]

It was not uncommon for a women to pass off the illegitimate child of an unmarried daughter as her own. Have you considered that possibility?

No, I had not thought of that Her eldest daughter was 18 or 19 at the time. Of course, there would be no way to know.
But 1821 is before "Victorian morality" set in. The numbers are in the registers, about 6-10% of births were illegitimate.

[conahy calling]

I know of three different women age 50 and over who had babies.   So possible but not very common.

How certain are you of the age of the mother?  Was her husband much older than her?  Sometimes ages were "tweaked" if there was a big difference in age between husband and wife.

Also consider if baptism record available for mother, that there may be more than one child, of same name if first child died.

[laochrione]

I have a smiliar case in one of my lines. The mother is obviously too old - she was 53. As she had two daughters who could've been the mother of the child, I've simply put him as her son rather than her grandson. As in all of these circumstances the chances are the child himself probably never questioned the situation.

[Ghostwheel]

Oldest female ancestor I can find was 43 when she had her last child.  Early 40s seems to be a common age.

It strikes me as being possible but very unlikely.  That is about the age of menopause, perhaps the same at that time?  But my understanding is that even many years before menopause, women become markedly less fertile.  Pair that with the idea that people often lived in crowded houses, and that is the basis for my theory.

Also,  I don't know how much of a factor it would be, but that would be before the Poor Unions were established.  Those were sometimes an outlet for illegitimate births, I believe.

[Wexflyer]

Many thanks for all the comments. I thought I should point out that my own leading alternative theory has not been mentioned. That is simply that my candidate birth for the mother may not be the correct one, such that the mother may not in fact have been so old.  I am still trying to weigh the relative likelyhood of these two possibilities. Still not clear to me!

[Billyblue]

In the last few years there have been at least two women in their SIXTIES in the news for giving birth.
One wonders how.  Any why would you want to - have to bring up a child when you are that age, I mean 

Dawn M

[a chesters]

Didn't they get some assistance of the medical type