By RIA Novosti,
New Delhi : A woman from the northern Indian state of Haryana has given birth for the first time at the age of 70, the Times of India newspaper said on Monday.
Rajo Devi and her 72-year-old husband, Bala Ram, had been married for 55 years, but she had been unable to conceive. The woman then underwent in-vitro fertilization treatment at a nearby fertility center and gave birth to a girl on November 28.
“Both the mother and child are in good health,” the doctor, Anurag Bishnoi, said.
He said that the embryo transfer had taken five days instead of the usual two or three, because the doctors had been careful to transfer only a single embryo to avoid a possible multiple pregnancy.
“The major concern for us was that in the case of the woman conceiving twins, she may not have been able to carry them through the full term of pregnancy. In that case, all our efforts would have failed, and the woman’s life would have been in danger,” Bishnoi said.
According to the doctor, Rajo Devi may now be the oldest ever woman to give birth for the first time.
A Romanian woman, Adriana Iliescu, had a child at the age of 66, while a Spanish woman, Maria Del, gave birth after IVF treatment at the age of 67. An unidentified woman from northern India, also in her 70s, was also reported to have a baby, but she had had children before.
“We longed for a child all these years and now we are very happy to have one in the twilight years of our life,” said the happy mother.