Hong Kong woman, 58, gives birth to girl as congratulations flood social media
Chan Lai-lai, wife of Hong Kong actor Brian Wong Chak-fung, delivered her second child on Aug 22 after conceiving through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Chan Lai-lai, 58, wife of Hong Kong actor Brian Wong Chak-fung, delivered her second child on Aug 22 after conceiving through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
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A 58-year-old Hong Kong woman whose pregnancy at an advanced age earlier caught citywide attention has safely given birth to a girl, her family announced on social media over the weekend.
Chan Lai-lai, the wife of local actor Brian Wong Chak-fung, delivered her second child on Aug 22 after conceiving through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), a type of assisted reproduction treatment.
In a heartwarming video posted on social media on Saturday, Wong is seen cutting the umbilical cord in the delivery room, greeting his infant and introducing the new baby to his six-year-old daughter.
The comment section was flooded with congratulatory messages and appreciation for the mother.
“You are living proof that giving birth at an advanced maternal age is not a problem, you are amazing!” one social media user wrote.
The news of Chan’s pregnancy in May attracted public attention, sparking hopes for older women wanting to have children, but also raising concerns about the risks of giving birth later in life.
As part of a wider effort to boost the city’s dire birth rate, the Hong Kong government has rolled out measures to help older women give birth, including allowing them to store embryos for as long as they want and offering tax reductions for those who undergo IVF treatment.
The median age for new mothers in Hong Kong has grown from 24.4 years in 1976 to 32.8 years in 2024.
Chan and Wong said they decided to have a second child because their elder daughter, born in 2019 when Chan was 52, wanted a sibling to keep her company.
Chan had gestational eczema, a skin condition that can occur during pregnancy, as well as relatively high blood pressure, while carrying her first child, and also experienced pre-eclampsia at delivery.
For her second child, Chan underwent IVF treatment in Taiwan after experiencing a miscarriage last year.
The couple spent around HK$200,000 (US$25,700), which included daily injections into her abdomen.
Specialists in obstetrics and gynaecology earlier told the Post that about one in five pregnant women in Hong Kong was of advanced maternal age, meaning they were 35 or above, with one in 20 being over 40.
The figure is one of the highest in the world.
The risk of miscarriage for pregnant women increases to 40 per cent for those aged 45 or above, while the risk of stillbirth for women aged 40 or above is three times that of women under 35.
This article was first published on SCMP.
