A 73-year-old woman in India has given birth to twin girls.
Erramatti Mangayamma, a farmer from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is believed to be the oldest person ever to give birth.
She became pregnant through IVF and doctors delivered the babies via caesarian section on Sept. 5.
“The surgery went well … the mother and the babies are all healthy with no complications,” Dr. Sanakayyala Umashankar, the director of Ahalya IVF, who performed the C-section, told CNN.
Mangayamma and her husband, 80-year-old E. Raja Rao, have been married since 1962 but had never been able to conceive naturally. They approached Umashankar in 2018 and, after preliminary tests were promising, the doctor agreed to give them one round of IVF treatment.
Given Mangayamma’s age, the doctors performed a C-section and will keep her under observation for the next 21 days.
“We are not allowing the mother to breastfeed and the babies will be fed through the milk bank,” Umashankar said.
Rao, 80, has already begun making plans for his daughter, said Umashankar. And for Mangayamma, it is a new lease of life at the age of 73, he said.
“She is very confident now. More confident than ever in her life and she is looking forward to the next chapter of her life with the kids,” Umashankar added.
Once verified, Mangayamma could become the new record holder for the oldest woman to give birth.
Omkari Panwar, from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, claimed to be the oldest mother in the world when she gave birth to twins in 2008, the Daily Mail reported. Her claim of being 70 years old when she gave birth ended up unverifiable.
“We checked her school certificate, which is authentic and mentions her date of birth as July 1, 1946,” Umashankar said of Mangayamma, according to the Daily Sabah, making her an apparently serious contender for the world record.
Currently, the oldest confirmed person to have given birth is Spanish woman Bousada de Lara who when she delivered twin boys in December 2006 was 66 years and 358 days old.
Woman Has Her First Child in Her 70s
The story follows the case of an Indian couple who was never able to conceive naturally during their 46-year-marriage before successfully undertaking fertility treatment in their 70s.
Daljinder Kaur, who does not have a birth certificate, is believed to be in her 70s, AFP reported. She gave birth to a boy after two years of IVF treatment. Her husband was believed to be 79 at the time.
“I feel blessed to be able to hold my own baby. I had lost hope of becoming a mother ever,” said Kaur, CBS reported. “Everyone asked me to adopt a baby, but I never wanted to. I had faith in Almighty, and knew I will bear my child one day,” she also said.
When Arman, was born, he was described as healthy, CBS noted.
The CNN Wire and Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this article.
