73-year-old woman becomes world oldest new mum after giving birth to twins

A 73-year-old woman in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has given birth to twin girls, the BBC reports.

If Mangayamma Yaramati’s age can be proven, she would become the oldest woman to give birth, according to Guinness World Records. The record was previously held bt 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.

Andhra Pradesh became pregnant following an IVF treatment and was delivered of twins on Thursday, according to the BBC Telugu.

“We are incredibly happy,” her husband Sitarama Rajarao also says on Thursday, hours after the babies were born.

When asked about who will care for the children in the event of their death, Rajarao answers: “Nothing is in our hands. Whatever should happen will happen. It is all in the hands of God.”

But just a day later, Mr Rajarao suffered a sudden stroke and is currently being treated in hospital.

Having children was important to the couple, who also said that they felt stigmatised in their village.

“They would call me a childless lady,” Mangayamma Yaramati says. “We tried many times and saw numerous doctors so this is the happiest time of my life,” the new mum adds.

The twin girls were delivered by Caesarean section, which is the usual method in such rare cases.

In 2016, another Indian woman, Daljinder Kaur, reportedly in her 70s, gave birth to a boy.