ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA. (THECOUNT) — Erramatti Mangayamma, a 73-year-old woman, is now the 73-year-old mother of twins after successfully birthing twin girls in India.
Mangayamma, a farmer from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is believed to be the oldest person ever to give birth. The new mother and her husband, 80-year-old E. Raja Rao, have been married since 1962 but had never been able to conceive naturally.
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The senior citizen became pregnant through IVF and doctors delivered the babies via cesarean section Thursday.
“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, reports WTVR.
The couple were approached 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.
Geo quick facts: Andhra Pradesh is a state bordering India’s southeastern coast. Major cultural landmarks include Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, an ornate hilltop shrine to Hindu’s Vishnu, in the southern part of the state. It’s visited by tens of millions of pilgrims annually. The major northern port of Visakhapatnam has popular beaches like Ramakrishna and Rishikonda lining the Bay of Bengal, offering spots for swimming and surfing – wikipedia.