74-Year Old Woman Becomes ‘World’s Oldest Mom’ After Birthing Twins

A southern India woman may have just set a new world record after giving birth to twins in her mid-70s.

Mangayamma Yaramati ― whose age has been reported as both 73 and 74 ― gave birth on Thursday to two little girls who were conceived via in vitro fertilization.

Doctors delivered the girls via Caesarean section in what turns out to be Yaramatti’s first set of offspring in her 57-year marriage to her husband Sitarama Rajarao, who is in his 80s.

“We tried many times and saw numerous doctors, so this is the happiest time of my life,” she told the BBC.

The doctors collected the husband’s sperm and tested it for the IVF process and once it was positively cleared, the journey began.

Its first cycle attained success officially in November – December; Mangayamma conceived in January and on 2 September, the doctors performed caesarean as normal delivery is not advisable for her age.

Also, she will not able to breastfeed the babies but that will not affect the health of the babies in any way as they can be fed with milk obtained from milk, the head doctor pointed out.

But it wasn’t a smooth experience by any means. A day after Yarameti gave birth, Rajarao suffered a stroke and was still being treated in the hospital.

Those involved in the delivery claim Yarameti had a birth certificate that stated her age to be 74 which makes her the world’s oldest mother, according to The Washington Post. But the newspaper pointed out that her age was not immediately verifiable.

If Yarameti’s age can be proven, she would become the oldest woman to give birth, according to Guinness World Records, beating out Barcelona’s Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, who gave birth to twin boys in September 2006 at the age of 66 years and 358 days. However, the BBC noted that another woman thought to be in her 70s gave birth to a boy in India in 2016.

But even if the births don’t set a world record, they’ve definitely started a controversy in India’s medical community, with some experts opposed to IVF for someone of Yaramati’s age.