A 74-year-old is thought to have become the world's oldest mother after giving birth to twins through IVF.
Erramatti Mangayamma, from India, gave birth to two healthy baby girls on Thursday (Aug 5) with her husband of 57 years, Raja Rao, 78, by her side.
The pensioner, of Andhra Pradesh state, revealed she was inspired to try for a baby after her 55-year-old neighbour conceived.
While her age has not yet been verified, if Mangayamma is as old as she claims, it will make her 8 years older than the current record holder, Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara.
It is believed the Ahalya IVF clinic in Guntur city paid for most of the procedure as medics knew it would be an historic achievement.
Mangayamma has no other children and went through the menopause 30 years ago.
She said: “I cannot express my feeling in words. These babies complete me. My six decade-long wait has finally come to an end. Now, no one call me infertile anymore.
“I thought about (undergoing)… IVF procedure after a neighbour conceived at the age of 55.”
Current record holder of the “world's oldest mother” Bousada de Lara was 66 years and 358 days old when she gave birth to twin baby boys, Christian and Pau, in Dec 2006.
She admitted lying about her age in order to receive fertility treatment at a private clinic in Los Angeles, for which she paid a reported £30,000 (RM154,000).
The babies were delivered prematurely by caesarean section and weighed 1.6kg each.
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. But her claim to have been 70 was not provable.
Mangayamma gave birth at the Ahalya IVF clinic under the guidance of Dr S Umashankar.
Dr Umashankar said it came as a “surprise” when the patient approached him last November, but revealed he saw it as a “challenge”.
The hospital trust, knowing the births would be historic, paid for the majority of the costs.
When a woman goes through the menopause, she is no longer able to get pregnant naturally.
But IVF is still possible through the use of eggs frozen earlier in the mother's life, or eggs from a donor.
With the plans chalked out, a team of doctors started preparing for the procedure and Mangayamma conceived in January after her first cycle of IVF.
She was kept in hospital throughout the pregnancy where a team of ten doctors monitored her health.
As her pregnancy progressed, scans revealed the presence of twins in her womb.
Mangayamma will not be able to breastfeed the babies as her body has stopped producing milk. – DAILY MAIL