A woman in India has become what is believed to be the world’s oldest mum, at age 73, after giving birth to twins.
Erramatti Mangayamma said she has waited almost 60 years to have children with her husband, 82-year-old Rajaro. The pair have been married for 57 years, and now have two children of their own after Erramatti had IVF treatment.
The new mum gave birth to twin girls via caesarean section at Ahalya Hospital, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, September 5.
Doctor Umasankar, from Ahalya Hospital, said:
As she is old, she cannot release eggs so we got eggs from a donor and collected sperm from her husband.
Luckily, she conceived in the first cycle itself and she was found to be pregnant this January.
It was smooth, as there were no health complications. Each baby is weighing approximately 2kgs and both the babies are healthy.
I don’t think she will have any major health issues in the post-delivery period.
However, she cannot breast-feed the babies. But no worries. We can feed the babies with milk obtained from the milk bank.
Erramatti was taken to intensive care after the delivery for monitoring, though Dr. Umasankar said she is ‘safe and healthy’.
Speaking to BBC Telugu, husband Sitarama Rajarao said ‘We are incredibly happy’.
When asked who would care for the children in case anything happened to the parents due to their advanced age, Rajarao said: ‘Nothing is in our hands. Whatever should happen will happen. It is all in the hands of God.’
Just a day after the birth, Mangayamma’s husband suffered a stroke, and is currently being treated in hospital.
According to Mangayamma, having children was very important to the couple, as they felt stigmatised in their village for never having any before now.
Mangayamma said other people would call her ‘a childless lady’.
She added:
We tried many times and saw numerous doctors, so this is the happiest time of my life.
Mangayamma is believed to have become the world’s oldest mum. The previous oldest was another Indian woman, Dalijinder Kaur, who at 70 years old gave birth to a boy.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.