I had my first baby at 48 — haters say I'm selfish but older moms do it better
A new mom has hit back at claims she's 'selfish' for having her first child at 48 – saying her age and wisdom make her better equipped to raise a baby.
Rene Byrd welcomed her baby boy, Crue, late last year after trying to get pregnant for almost a decade.
'In my heart, I always longed to hold a baby that was mine,' she emotionally told Jam Press. 'I'm more financially stable, more patient, and I've lived a full life.'
'I feel more in control, more confident,' the new mom continued. 'I've spent years around friends' kids, reading, learning. I'm in a completely different headspace.'
Byrday says she always dreamed of becoming a mom, but life didn't exactly go to plan.
She met her now-husband, 42-year-old American attorney Demetrious, by chance in a London bar, when she was in her late thirties.
Aware of Byrd's biological clock, the pair started trying for a baby in 2017. At the time, Byrd was 40.
'We tried to conceive naturally, but my age was always a factor,' the singer-songwriter stated. 'The panic starts to set in – you realise time is slipping away.'
'It was getting me down,' she continued. 'I knew my window was closing.'
Byrd and her beau eventually decided to to undergo IVF – a rough journey that cost her over $25,000.
However, early last year, the Londoner learned she was finally pregnant.
Her overwhelming joy was quickly dulled by detractors who told her she was too old to become a parent.
'People have told me it's selfish,' Byrd explained. 'They say it jokingly, but you know they're not joking. It can make you feel guilty, but I just want to be the best mom I can be.'
Since welcoming Crue into the world last November, Byrd says she's even lost several friends due to their outrage over her having a baby at an advanced age.
'Some relationships dissolved,' the musician admitted.
Despite that heartache, and the long road to motherhood, Byrd says she wouldn't change a thing.
'You do get that twinge of guilt when you think about being older, but it's nobody's business,' she declared.
'You have to live your own life in your own time.'
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