A 64 year old woman has given
birth to a healthy baby boy
|
A 64-year-old woman in India has given birth
to a test tube baby, it is reported, becoming one
of the world's oldest first-time mothers.
The baby boy, weighing only 1.75 kilos, was born
to Papathiammal Subramaniam and her 74-year-old
farmer husband.
Mrs Subramaniam went through menopause around
20 years ago, so doctors used the donated egg
of a 30-year-old relative with the husband's sperm.
The baby is currently in an incubator and being
monitored closely.
The mother had the baby via caesarian section
at Maruthi Medical Centre
in Erode, a small town 500 kilometres
from Madras in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
No complications
Despite their age, the couple had no previous
children in their 47 years of marriage.
Although Papathiammal suffers age-related diabetes
and hypertension, the pregnancy and birth went
smoothly.
Obstetrician Nirmala
Sadasivam used the blatocyst method
of invitro fertilisation, where the embryo is
developed for five days in a laboratory instead
of three.
This is supposed to reduce the risk of multiple
births.
Chairman of the Maruti
Medical Centre, M.N. Sadasivam, told
AFP both mother and child are doing well.
"The child, delivered after nine months of pregnancy
and weighing a little less than normal at 1.75
kilos (3.85 pounds), is incubated safely," he
said.
Mrs Subramaniam is very nearly the oldest
woman on record to give birth, the
oldest being a 65 year old Indian woman.
Satyabhama Mahapatra gave birth to a healthy
three kilo boy, also by caesarean section, in
April last year.
She was able to give birth through IVF, using
her husband's sperm and an embryo from her 26
year old neice.
Other record-holders include a 63 year old Italian
in 1997 and a 58 year old Indian from Bombay.
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