Brigitte Nielsen, 54, reveals she has named her newborn daughter Frida

Published: 14:50 BST, 27 June 2018 | Updated: 15:06 BST, 27 June 2018

e-mail

View
comments

Brigitte Nielsen, 54, welcomed her fifth child, a daughter, last week.

And on Wednesday the Red Sonja actress told People that she has named her bundle of joy Frida.

'We are overjoyed to welcome our beautiful daughter into our lives,' the leggy blonde Nineties icon said. 'It’s been a long road, and so worth it. We’ve never been more in love.'

Good name: Brigitte Nielsen, 54, welcomed her fifth child, a daughter, last week. And on Wednesday the Red Sonja actress told People that she has named her bundle of joy Frida

The baby joy is real: 'We are overjoyed to welcome our beautiful daughter into our lives,' the leggy blonde Nineties icon said. 'It’s been a long road, and so worth it. We’ve never been more in love'

The father is Italian TV producer Mattia Dessì, 39, whom she wed in 2006.

It was only one month ago that the blonde beauty, who was once married to Sylvester Stallone, revealed she was with child.

The baby weighs 5 lbs. 9 oz.

'We are overjoyed to welcome our beautiful daughter into our lives,' she told the site. 'It’s been a long road, and so worth it. We’ve never been more in love.'

New daddy: The father is Italian TV producer Mattia Dessì, 39, whom she wed in 2006

This is the fifth child for the movie star who is best known for 1985's Rocky IV, 1986's Cobra and 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II. She already has sons Julian, 34, Killian, 28, Douglas, 25, and Raoul, 23.

Nielsen was previously married to Raoul Meyer from 1993 to 2003, Sebastian Copeland from 1990 until 1992, Stallone from 1985 until 1987 and Kasper Winding from 1983 until 1984.

Happily married: The 6ft1in knockout is often photographed with Dessi. She shared this photo on Friday

Mattia is her fifth husband.

She has also dated Flavor Flav (2003 - 2005), Mark Gastineau (1988 - 1990), Tony Scott (1987), Kelly Sahnger (1987 - 1988) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (1984 - 1985). And she has been linked to Vanilla Ice, Mick Hucknall and Sean Penn.

The star shared the news to Instagram in late May.

Her ex: Nielsen was previously married to Sylvester Stallone from 1985 until 1987

Big film: The leggy import also made Red Sonja, which cam,e out in 1985, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom she dated for a year

The 6ft1in knockout shocked fans when she posted a photograph of herself dressed in a white dress as she placed her hands on her large baby bump.

The Eighties icon wrote in her caption, 'Family getting larger.'

Soon after the bombshell posted a second photo, this time with the caption, 'Happy time. Positive vibes.' She wore sunglasses and a scarf with a tight T-shirt dress.

Nielsen is not alone in her choice to have a child later in life. In 2013, 13 babies were born each week to moms aged 50 and older, according to parenting.com.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says births by women between the ages of 50 and 54 increased by more than 165 percent from 2000 to 2013.

Most women who get pregnant at age 50 do so with the help of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

And given the average age for menopause is 51, older moms typically use donor eggs of younger women in order to conceive.

PREGNANCY AFTER 50 IS BECOMING MORE COMMON - BUT IT COMES WITH HEALTH RISKS

More mothers are waiting until later in life to have children, but pregnancy after 50 is still quite rare.

A woman's fertility begins to decline in her early 30s. After age 35, her number of viable eggs starts to fall more quickly.

Women are born with a set amount of follicles - between one and two million - or immature eggs.

These develop at different rates. Some follicles never release an fully-fledged egg, but each month the ovaries release one egg to wait for fertilization in the uterus.

Most women only ovulate around 450 eggs over the course of their lives, so by their late 40s, most have run out and start to head toward menopause.

Menopause begins around age 51 for the average woman, at which point pregnancy becomes impossible.

However, even as fertility is declining among American women (and men) overall, one group is having a few more babies than they did in the past: older women.

The birthrate among women between 45 and 49 - the oldest group that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks - went up by 0.1 percent between 2016 and 2017.

In 2013, an estimated 677 American women over 50 gave birth, marking a 370 percent increase over the 144 such births in 1977.

So far, an Indian woman believed to be in her 70s who had a baby boy in 2016 is thought to be the oldest to give birth, though a 66-year-old holds the official record.

Celebrities too, have made headlines for having in their later years, including Janet Jackson who had her son, Eissa Al Mana, at age 50.

A growing number of women choose to freeze their eggs - which decline in quality with age - while they are younger, use IVF, surrogates or donor eggs in order to have children at more advanced ages.

But pregnancy after peak fertility can come with risks.

Older women are more likely to develop high blood pressure, preeclampsia, diabetes and heart problems, so most doctors screen them carefully if they are trying to conceive.

If women in this age group do get pregnant, doctors will continue to monitor them closely as a precaution, but they can certainly have healthy pregnancies, and a growing number are doing just that.