On Mike Austin’s Radio Dad podcast (episode #15), Mike and I discussed a topic I covered in a recent Ask Family Man piece about the anxieties of expectant dads. Listen to the podcast (the third segment of his show), read the article, and check out Mike’s other podcasts and content at his Radio Dad site.

For this week’s Family Matters with Tracey Serebin, Tracey asked me about 5 tips dads might like to have before they have a baby. Listen in and hear about planning for paternity leave, managing all those well-meaning friends and family members who want to visit your exhausted household, and avoiding spontaneous expenditures that come from your overjoyed but non-budget-conscious state of mind. Tracey’s interview with me on her Internet radio program runs 30 minutes, following her segment with a mom expert. Log on to the new installment and click “Listen Now” or “Podcast.”

This sounds like something out of a sitcom. A Massachusetts couple were racing to the hospital with the prenant wife having contractions. In the midst of heavy traffic, the husband headed up a breakaway lane and was ignored by two state troopers before one stopped them. The officer made them wait while he ticketed someone else, then acted like he didn’t believe the couple’s reason for bending the law and gave them a $100 ticket. The couple eventually made it to the hospital and gave birth to a healthy child. Still, what happened to the days when police officers would escort pregnant couples to the hospital?

Intimacy after childbirth and beyond is the topic on the new podcast of Tracey Serebin’s Family Matters. Get the dad perspective from me and the mom view from Tracey on this frank, sometimes funny, and frequently helpful segment. Tracey’s interview with me on her Internet radio program runs 30 minutes, following her talk with Wendy Jaffe, who covers the topic from the angle of a divorce attorney, who contributed an instructive piece to this site. Log on to the new installment and click “Listen Now” or “Podcast.” It’s about sex, so you gotta have opinions/stories to share via the comments option.

Oh, boy — make that, oh, two boys. A 60-year-old New Jersey woman gave birth to twin boys earlier this week, setting the record for being the oldest woman in the U.S. to give birth (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18817248/). Frida Birnbaum, who has been happily married for almost 40 years, said she wanted her youngest child (6) to have siblings closer to his age. She also has another son, 33, and a daughter, 29. To get pregnant, Birnbaum had in-vitro fertilzation performed at a South African clinic.

Given the factors that are known, I think both mom and dad are too old to be having children. It may be nice for the six-year-old to have siblings, but why did these parents choose to have another child so late in life? It would be one thing if these folks never had kids, however they had two healthy ones decades before. It appears that this couple had children at their advanced ages — which was risky, healthwise, for both the children and the mother — because they wanted the experience. Now, these very young ones will have parents whom they may likely have to take care of as they wear down as much as the parents will take care of them.

Given health care advances, it is remarkable that this woman gave birth and is doing well. But I keep thinking about the lifestyle of the children with parents whose mindsets will turn to slowing down, even if they are healthy. Am I being too judgmental? I’ve had my own feelings about being an older parent, compared to my own mom and dad (http://www.familymanonline.com/columns.php?id=12). Do we need to have an age line for parents?