The Dutch woman who made international headlines when she gave birth at the age of 63 has died nine years later leaving her young daughter without a mother.
Tineke Geessink’s family confirmed she passed away at the age of 72 in the village of Sint Annaparochie in the municipality of Waadhoeke in the Friesland province in the north of the Netherlands.
Geessink made headlines in 2011 when she gave birth to a daughter at the age of 63 after undergoing IVF treatment.
Local newspaper HLN report she had been refused IVF in the Netherlands as the maximum age to receive the treatment in the country is 45, because doctors find the risks of fertilisation too great for women older than that.
She travelled to Italy to undergo the treatment with doctor Severino Antinori who specialises in fertility treatments for women over 50 years old.
The treatment was a success and she later gave birth at Leeuwarden Hospital, with local newspaper NOS reporting that the birth caused controversy as some believed it was not right for her to have a baby who was likely to lose its mother at an early age.
Geessink had told NOS: “My desire to have children goes so deeply that I want to do it all. Nobody knows in advance how old he or she will be. I hope my daughter and I can be together for a long time.”
No cause of death has been revealed and the Geessink family said the care for Tineke’s daughter has been organised. Her family said she died two weeks ago but the death has only just been reported.
A post in the obituary section of local newspaper Leeuwarder Courant simply read: “Dear mama, I will miss you.”
Tineke Geessink’s daughter in 2011 in hospiral 
Tineke Geessink, the Dutch woman who gave birth to a healthy baby girl at the age of 63 in 2011, died two weeks ago at the age of 72 and left her 9 year old daughter without a mother
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Story By: Alex Cope, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News
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