Indian woman, 70, gives birth to first baby

LITTLE MIRACLE: Mohinder Singh Gilland and his wife Daljinder Kaur with their newborn baby
Image by: AFP

An Indian woman who gave birth at the age of 70 said yesterday that she was not too old to become a first-time mother - and that her life was now complete.

Daljinder Kaur gave birth last month to a boy following two years of IVF treatment at a fertility clinic in the northern state of Haryana.

Kaur said she and her 79-year-old husband, Mohinder Singh Gilland, had almost lost hope of having a child and had faced ridicule in a country in which infertility is sometimes seen as a curse from God.

The couple have been married for 46 years.

'I have full faith in God. God is omnipotent and will take care of everything'

"God heard our prayers," Kaur said. "My life feels complete now. I am looking after the baby all by myself, I feel so full of energy. My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can.

"When we saw the IVF advert we thought we should give it a try because I badly wanted to have a baby of my own."

Kaur put her age at about 70, a common uncertainty in India, where many people do not have a birth certificate. The clinic said she was 72.

The baby was conceived using the couple's own egg and sperm and was now "healthy and hearty" after weighing just 2kg at birth on April 19, the National Fertility and Test Tube centre said.

Mohinder, who owns a farm near Amritsar, said he was not worried about their age, saying God would watch over their child, whom they named Armaan.

"People say what will happen to the child once we die. But I have full faith in God. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, He will take care of everything."

Anurag Bishnoi, who runs the fertility clinic, said he was at first sceptical about going ahead with in vitro fertilisation but tests showed Kaur would be able to carry the baby to term.

"I first tried to avoid the case because she looked very frail. Then we made her undergo all the tests and once the results were okay we went ahead," he said.

A 72-year-old woman reportedly gave birth to twins in India in 2008, also through IVF.